Red
by Writer-Supreme
Summary: During the final battle with Madara Uchiha, Madara uses a jutsu to go back in time and try to get things to change in his favor, but Naruto secretly follows. Can Naruto change his past for the better while protecting it from Madara? A time travel fic.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Red. The color of blood, of death, and fire. Naruto Uzumaki hated that color. How it shone in his enemies eyes, the eyes that had murdered all but the three that stood before him.

To his right stood Sasuke Uchiha, first of the last two Uchiha on the planet, he was charred all over. His akatsuki robes had been burnt off, the only remnant of them was a piece of black fabric clinging to his wrists. What was left of his shirt hung over his short black pants, which was barley touching his ankles, leaving the wounds he had received easily visible.

Tall and scrawny, Rock Lee stood to his left. His appearance was less then ideal, for he had been the one to fight their enemy hand to hand. His clothes that were once a green jumpsuit, the top of which was covered in the customary flak jacket of the hidden leaf village, completed with orange leg-warmers, were no more. The flack jacket and leg warmers were gone, either destroyed or discarded. What was once a green jumpsuit was now tattered and charred. He was breathing heavily, and was bruised to the point of half of his body being blue.

The last of the small group stood behind them, for he was easily the worst off. Kakashi Hatake, former anbu captain to the now crumbling leaf village, knelt in nothing but his black under-armor, the rest of his clothes had been burnt off due to their enemy's love of fire attacks. The rest of his body had been bruised and bloodied beyond repair. His sharingan eye was wide open, waiting to be used.

Naruto looked around himself and his living comrades, and saw the corpses of all of his friends. The man in front of him had killed them all, but they had not gone down without a fight. Naruto smirked as he took in his enemy's appearance.

Madara Uchiha had completely lost the use of his left arm, courtesy of Hinata and Neji Hyuga. It was almost as if they alternated blows when they attacked, things had gotten so much better between them... Naruto shook himself, now was not the time to dwell on the past. Madara's mask, which he seemed to prize, had been snapped straight down the middle with a huge chunk missing. That was just like Sakura, to go out with a bang, literally in this case. Tenten, Ino, Choji, Kiba and Shikamaru had caused the most damage to his body, constantly attacking it without relent, while, unknown to everyone else, Shino had been draining him with his bugs the entire time. But there was another flaw to his person that annoyed Naruto the most.

He was still breathing.

It had become Naruto's purpose to correct that flaw, a purpose that he intended to see through, but how to do it?

As if on cue, a memory flashed through his head.

_"Alright Naruto, there are five different elements of chakra; Wind, lightning, earth, water, and fire." Kakashi and Naruto were seated on the grass in training ground 39 for some open space while Kakashi was giving Naruto a lesson on chakra elements. _

_"Each element has a strength and weakness. Your chakra is wind, which is very convenient if you're going to fight Sasuke. The wind element cancels out lightning, which Sasuke uses, but never use this jutsu against one of his fire jutsu, it will only make it stronger."_

_"It's like were made for each other." Said the blonde with a sad smile. Kakashi gave him a confused look,_

_"Because wind cancels out lighting?" he asked_

_"No, because only my wind element can make his fire stronger..."_

The blonde's eyes widened at the revelation, this could work! He whipped around and started barking out orders,

"Lee! I need you to distract him for as long as you can, keep him focused on you and only you!" The taijutsu specialist nodded and charged forward. Naruto turned to Sasuke,

"Sasuke, I need you to create the biggest fireball you can, and don't stop for anything!" Sasuke raised a questioning eyebrow, but complied all the same, launching the fireball straight at Madara.

Naruto took a deep breath, preparing himself, and summoned two shadow clones. The three Naruto's slowly started pumping chakra into the original's hand, creating the blonde's most powerful technique, _Wind Style: Rasenshurikan. _Hoping against hope, he threw the jutsu straight into the flames yelling for Lee to run.

The effect was instantaneous. Where there was once a small stream of flames now there was a blast of fire, at least two stories high. The force of the attack sent Naruto and Kakashi flying backwards into a mound of rubble that absorbed most of the impact.

When Naruto stood and righted himself, he discovered the jutsu had dissipated, leaving a long trail of ash. At the start, there stood Lee supporting a panting and reasonably charred Sasuke. Naruto saw them and smiled, and as they returned the gesture, Naruto felt a huge burden lift from his shoulders; He could thing of only one thing. It was finally over, all of his troubles.

"No..." The last ninja of the leaf, turned to stare at a figure, standing in the middle of the charred landscape. "I wont..." the figure stopped and started to cough, releasing a large amount of blood from his mouth. The blackened form that was once Madara Uchiha flew through a set of hand seals, ending on the rat seal. "I'll go back... become... stronger... back... in time."

A large crack of lightning, and a black vortex appeared behind him, and with a sadistic smile, he jumped through. Though the vortex lingered behind, and Naruto realized what that vortex meant for him. Naruto ran forward ignoring his friend's calls, until something caught his shoulder. He whipped around to see the charred face of none other than Sasuke Uchiha, his face screwed up in determination.

" Where are you going?" He asked with curiosity in his voice. In answer Naruto gave Sasuke a swift kick, sending him sliding backwards.

"If this thing really does take you back in time, I could save all my friends! That includes you Sasuke!" At this Sasuke furiously attempted to run after the blonde, but was held back by Lee. Lee gave his nod of approval to Naruto, who, with one final glance at his friends, jumped into the ever-shrinking darkness.

Naruto knew what it would mean to jump into the portal, but it still was gnawing at his conscience. He had, theoretically, killed the Lee, Kakashi, and Sasuke from his time. And they couldn't come back...


	2. The Chunin Chase

A/N: Alright! I'm already on chapter 2! Before we start I just wanted to say a few things. First, a huge thank you to "Apallingly" for taking the time to look through my prologue and helping me with my spelling/grammer. Second, this chapter contains implied torture, please dont review saying things like how you think torture is disgusting or something (I've seen it happen) it's purely to show the level of insanity my O.C is in. Constructive criticism, random comments, etc... are fine. Third, I'm thinking I should increase the rating to M. The description for T is "Minor violence and blood" or something along those lines. I think I'll have more than "minor" violence. What do you think? Anyway, onto the chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 1: The Chunin Chase

Iruka Umino sat at his desk, tapping its surface with annoyance at the increasing volume of his students. He was staring at the clock; his gaze alone should be enough to force the damned thing to move faster. One minuet to go... thirty seconds... ten...

With a sudden and loud ring from the clock the noise of the students was quickly dulled. Just on time too, for if it had been a second longer the desk Iruka was sitting at would have been no more than a pile of splinters. As the students started to quiet themselves Iruka got up, smiled, and clasped his hands together, his bad mood draining out of him.

"All right class, I hope you all are ready for graduation, but don't think for a second that I'll give you any leeway just because graduation-" But he was cut off by a loud crash coming from the hall. The noise the noise was followed by hurried footsteps up the hall outside of the room.

The door was thrown open to reveal none other than Naruto Uzumaki, dressed in his normal orange outfit with what appeared to be part of a window pane hanging from his neck.

Naruto seemed to notice this too, so he pulled the square piece of wood from around his neck and tossed it behind him and out the door. The door was hastily slammed shut after a loud thud and a cry of pain had emanated from down the hall.

At this point the whole class was laughing, and a select few had managed to topple themselves over taking one or two people with them. Naruto nodded, satisfied with his work, and took his usual seat with Sakura.

"Naruto I don't want to know why you chose to enter the school through the window, and don't bother trying to tell me." Iruka added seeing Naruto open his mouth to speak a lie he had no-doubt been practicing the whole walk to school.

"But I want to see you after school to clean up whatever damage you caused this time."

"Awww, that's it? Is loosing me affecting you so much you decided to take it easy on me? Iruka sensei I didn't think you cared." Naruto replied, smiling all the while.

"All right," Iruka said, his mouth twitching in annoyance. "If that's too easy I can give you the janitors job. But I'd be careful," At this he leaned towards the blonde. "I hear the daycare kids aren't trained, you see." Iruka put air quotes around the word trained, cracking an evil smile of his own.

Naruto paled at the thought of the poor excuses for diapers the academy provided, and the mess they made. The class was dead silent now, no doubt in any of their minds that Iruka would give him the job, and they wanted to avoid a similar fate.

"No, no, I think damage control is just fine, you don't have to-" Iruka raised his hand to silence him.

"Just stay after class." he responded, having ended another rant to-be. "Right, now class for the final week of school we will start to review our material. I wanted to start off with bloodlines, Hinata, will you come here please?"

The heiress slowly got up from her seat and shuffled down to the front of the class, the blush easily visible on her cheeks. Iruka gave her an encouraging smile, and asked her to activate her bloodline, but before she could, a hand shot up into the air.

"Iruka sensei, may I use the bathroom" Naruto asked, his hand still raised, worry etched across his now pale face. Iruka gave him a questioning glance before denying his request and motioning for Hinata to continue.

Hinata activated her Byakugan and started to look around at the class, taking in every detail. But then her eyes went wide and she started trembling head to toe. Iruka noticed this and questioned her,

"Hinata, what's wrong?" He asked, albeit fearful of the answer. Hinata raised a shaking hand towards Naruto and replied,

"That isn't Naruto..." All eyes were now on the impersonator, who cracked a smile.

"You couldn't have given me a few more minuets? I was having fun." Smoke surrounded him as his illusion broke, revealing his true identity.

The first thing one would notice about the imposter is his dark purple hair, unkempt and uncared for. As you continue down his person you would notice his eyes, one a dark brown the other a bright yellow with no pupil, a large gash going through the eye and the skin around it. Combined with the sadistic smile on his face, the man looked insane to the highest degree. His chest was clothed in nothing but bandages, slowly looping around his torso and stopping at shoulder level, where the end was tucked into the wrappings. His legs were dressed in leather pants that reached down to his ankles and stopped.

"Where's Naruto?" Iruka asked quietly, trying to calm his fear.

The imposter broke into an even wider grin "What do you think Iruka? What did I do?" He sat down on his desk and struck up a over exaggerated thinking pose. Iruka glared at him, he was having fun! The imposter jumped up and on top of the desk, the ever-present grin still plastered on his face suddenly grew evil,

"He's dead, Iruka." He spoke slowly, relishing each word. His smile widened when Hinata collapsed on her knees, hyperventilating. Iruka was oblivious; He could just stare at the assassin, his hatred ever-growing.

"I have to say, Iruka," The assassin was now kneeling on the desk, resting his head on one knee. "Your student was my best work yet. Don't be mad, Iruka! You should be proud!" He added after seeing Iruka's expression. "Its not every day your students corpse is made into such art!"

"What have you done!" Iruka gasped out. Earning another sadistic smile from the assassin.

"Oh Iruka! The blood!" He continued jumping down from his perch and walked over to Hinata, pulling her tear stained face to look at his smiling one. "You should have heard his screams girl." This earned another fit of tears from the girl. Giggling madly, he jumped backwards while pulling out a reddened kunai.

"With this tool, I carved designs. The most beautiful thing-" But he was cut off by Iruka,

"Shut up, you monster!" Iruka shouted.

Ninja were trained from day one to read emotion on another's face. Some like the Hyuga were naturally gifted with this skill. Others struggled with this skill, and never learnt it. But even the students in the room could see what their teacher was thinking as clear as if it was written across his forehead.

_Kill_

His expression earned him another bright smile and leapt out of the room, Iruka closely following.

* * *

Iruka Umino had lost his target... again. He was leaning against an ally wall, desperately trying to catch his breath while searching for the assassin. When suddenly a voice greeted his ears,

"What's wrong Iruka? Done already?" he looked around and standing at the back of the ally was the assassin, bouncing on the balls of his feet, a kunai in his hand. He still had that smile plastered on his face, which Iruka found annoying.

The teacher responded by walking into the middle of the ally, his own kunai at the ready. He glared at the assassin, and spread out to block the exit to the ally. The assassin's grin widened and he charged forward, making motions to slash with the small knife in his hands.

But at the last minute, he dove under Iruka's arms. He ran off again, laughing maniacally. Iruka rushed off after him, a newfound determination in his eyes. The assassin jumped up onto the rooftops and Iruka followed suit.

The assassin was getting worried. He could see the distance between them was narrowing. But the evil smirk found its way onto his face again. Why not have some fun?

He ripped the bandages covering his chest off and tossed them at Iruka. After making a quick hand seal the bandages burst into flames, distracting Iruka for long enough to make a reasonable distance between the two of them.

Iruka would not relent though. He continued following the assassin until he suddenly came to a stop in front of a random ally. The smile had been completely wiped from is face as he stared into the ally with confused wonder. He realized his mistake to late, and his attempts to get away were proven futile.

Iruka walked up to the assassin's body and removed the kunai from the back his head. He looked down the ally that had granted him his kill, curiosity getting the better of him.

At the end of the short ally there was a small puddle of blood splattered on the ground. Iruka frowned, if this was where he attacked Naruto, where was the body? As if on queue a voice spoke up behind him,

"Darn sensei, you got him before I could. Now where's the fun in that?" Iruka whipped around and standing there, drenched in blood and all, was Naruto. The bloodied boy smiled weakly before collapsing onto the ground, unconscious.

As he ran to help his student, Iruka stole one final glace at the assassin. The smile was no more; His face was screwed up in terror.

Revenge had been served.


	3. Awakenings

AN: Chapter 2 is here! Sorry for the long wait, but I couldn't get into the edit my story page for so long. Anyways, I wanted to thank all who reviewed chapter one and I hope you guys like this new one! On to the chapter!

* * *

Chapter 2: Awakenings

"His name was Genta Manza," The third Hokage stared intently at an emotionally exhausted Iruka Umino. He carefully slid a folder entitled_ Classified_ across his desk and opened the folder. Iruka picked up the files and slowly shuffled through them. The files read,

_Name: Genta Manza_

_Class: Chunin_

_Specialization: Stealth, interrogation _

_Clan: None_

_Status: Missing-nin, status in effect for ten years_

Attached to the files was a picture of Genta. He was smiling warmly at the picture. He looked similar to the Genta that had shown up in his classroom, save the two brown eyes and the leaf headband wrapped around his head. But the Genta in this picture was sane, possibly very nice judging by the way he gently smiled up at the picture.

Seeing Iruka's eyes glaze over in thought at the sight of the picture, the hokage decided to pick up the conversation again,

"He lost his entire family in the nine tail's attack. His family, his friends, even lost an eye. He went through severe mental rehabilitation before going rouge." The teacher in front of him nodded solemnly before returning his gaze to the files in his hands, obviously not paying attention to what he was reading. The hokage sighed,

"Iruka, it's been two days, I know that you're upset. I am too, but we both have duties to attend to." Seeing no change in the teacher's appearance he continued, "Iruka, I finally found someone to bury the body." Iruka's head shot up, his motions telling the village leader what he wanted to ask before he could, "And yes, I know he's trustworthy. But I'm sending someone to watch him, so he can't do anything to it." Iruka visibly calmed with these words, but his head still hung, evidence of depression.

The hokage slid an envelope across his desk until it was right on top of the empty folder.

"Your reward for Genta" He spoke softly, but Iruka glared down upon the letter like it was the satin reincarnate. "Take it, maybe you can buy something for him." The teacher nodded solemnly, exchanging the papers in his hands for the envelope.

As he reached for the door handle the door was flung open. Iruka jumped back, his hand over his kunai pouch. In the doorway stood an openly panting nurse, resting on the doorframe. She staggered to the hokage's desk and spoke in the most official voice she could muster in the state she was in,

"Lord Hokage, Its the Uzumaki boy."

* * *

Naruto Uzumaki stared through the window to the side of his bed, taking in every detail of his village. Happiness was radiating from his body as he looked at his once destroyed home. His mind started wandering to all he could do now that he was here, but his musing were cut short when the door to his ward was thrown open.

In the doorway stood a wide-eyed Iruka Umino, a smiling hokage, and a nurse who was openly nervous. Iruka unconsciously moved towards the blonde and sat down in a chair next to him. Naruto sat up and stretched, and then noticing their pale faces he asked,

"What's wrong? You're all act like you've seen a ghost." He already knew why they were surprised, its not every day a seventeen year old man appears in a hospital bed. But the answer his old teacher gave him took him off guard completely.

"You were dead Naruto..." He'd seen pretty strange things in his lifetime, reincarnation was one of them, and so the answer itself wasn't what surprised him, what made him gaze into the window again, looking for his reflection. If the jutsu had succeeded, how did Iruka know his name? The answer he found made him cry out in surprise. Staring back at him was a twelve-year-old boy with messy blonde hair.

He'd seen the movies, when you time travel you go to the time as you were when you left and tried to pull the strings from the shadows to make people do things they didn't do before. You weren't supposed to take over your past self's body! Admittedly, it would make things easier, he could just walk up to someone and tell them not to go somewhere instead of laying elaborate traps to try and stall them.

The hokage could practically hear the gears whirring in Naruto's head, he sighed and spoke up,

"So Naruto, do you know why you look like this? Its probably why your still alive after all." Naruto raised an eyebrow, did he look different? He looked back at his reflection and let out another yelp. His body was clearly under the influence of the nine tail's chakra, his irises had turned red and his pupils had morphed into slits. The normally faint whisker marks on his face were enlarged and bolded. He quickly tried to suppress the chakra but a burning sensation went through his neck, so he quickly let the chakra flow through him again. He responded to the third's question without thinking,

"Jinchuriki powers?" He cringed as his mind caught up with his mouth. He had no idea if he had graduated yet, if he hadn't he really shouldn't know about the fox. He realized he had done something wrong when he could see blurs in the trees outside of his room, evidence of movement. The Hokage frowned,

"How did you know that?" He asked. His hand was twitching by his side, ready to spring into action. Naruto spoke slowly, the lie still forming in his mind. It was a minor alteration of what had happened many times before.

"Well, I woke up in this place that I thought was a sewer because of the smell." He smiled hopefully at the hokage, who's expression had not changed. "Well, there was this huge cage in front of me, and then the fox started talking from behind it!" he exaggerated every word with movements, hoping his impression of his younger self was accurate. "He told me about the fourth sealing him in me and everything!"

Iruka's expression softened, he seemed satisfied with the answer, though the hokage's stern expression remained. He excused himself and left, leaving Iruka as the only visitor. He smiled and started talking to the boy, telling him of what he missed.

* * *

The third hokage was glaring at a piece of paper on his desk. On it was an impression of the seal locking the nine tail's in Naruto. It had been specially designed to let him summon the demon's chakra when needed, but did it allow communication?

His eyes trailed to the brown folder containing the files on Genta. The corner of a picture poked out from the bottom. He slid out the glossy piece of paper and let out a groan. He knew he had seen the design before. He sighed, massaging his temples and feeling his daily headache coming on early.

* * *

AN: Sorry about this chapter, I know nothing interesting happens in it, but things will get interesting in the next one! And, unlike some authors, I have a reason for putting Naruto under the nine tails influence. I'll be updating as soon as I can. Reviews of all kinds are welcome!


	4. Academy Again

A/N: Yeah its only been a day since my last update, but while I lost access to the edit page, I was still working and finished chapter 2 and started on 3, and your result is two updates in two days! Personally, this is my favorite chapter so far. (also written the best in my opinion). Please review and enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 3: Academy Again

Iruka Umino was teaching again. He suddenly felt strangely indebted to the Nine tailed fox, the thing that had killed his family. The morning after Naruto's revival, Iruka woke feeling absolutely giddy. He immediately called his substitute, reporting that he would be teaching. But he was worried now, as the seat next to Sakura was strangely vacant. Naruto had assured him he would be at the academy today. Suddenly he realized the panic that Naruto's new look might cause in the eyes of some pedestrians. He started to try and think up of some excuse to go and check up on the boy, when a shaking hand raised itself into the air. He glanced in the hand's direction and to his surprise, found the hand attached to one Hinata Hyuga. He stopped talking and asked the girl to speak up.

Hinata never willingly commented in class, and whatever questions she had were reserved for when she approached him after everyone had left. So for the heiress to openly ask a question in class, he knew it had to be important.

"I'm sorry... umm... w-wi... umm" Her stuttering got progressively worse as the class turned to watch her. Her white eyes darted around to each of them and soon her speech was reduced to an incoherent mumble. Iruka sighed,

"Hinata, no one here is going to insult you for asking a question." He noticed the heiress's appearance. Her head was drooping and her eyes would stay closed for much longer than needed when she blinked, evidence of sleepless nights. Her eyes had darted to the classroom door at random intervals during the day, realizing what she was going to ask Iruka inwardly kicked himself. In his excitement he had forgotten to tell them that Naruto was alive!

"Hinata, Naruto's alright I made sure of it." He smiled warmly at the heiress. At this several more hands shot into the air but before he could answer their questions, there was a loud knock at the door. Iruka strode over to the door and opened it, revealing a small red haired boy. The boy yanked Iruka into the hallway, where he burst into a cloud of smoke, revealing Naruto Uzumaki. Iruka gave him a 'what the hell were you doing' look, causing the boy to break into nervous laughter.

"Well, on the way here I stopped in at Ichiraku's but there were already these guys there." Iruka stopped glaring, realizing what must have happened. But to his surprise, Naruto was smiling. "When I walked in the guys took one look at me and started screaming bloody murder. Then this chunin came, looked like an idiot by the way, had a senbon hanging from his mouth. So I had to basically give him a run down on what had happened in the last week to explain my appearance. All the while this guy was yelling at the chunin person to call anbu. But the chunin guy was nice so he let me go once I had told him everything, so I transformed and left." He puffed out his chest, proud of his idea. Iruka smiled, making a mental note to ask the hokage to give Genma extra pay on missions.

Then Iruka noticed something on Naruto's neck when the large collar went down as he struck the pose. He bent down and lightly pushed Naruto's head back, disregarding the boy's protests. He found a large red mark trailing across the front of his neck, resembling a rash in the shape of a sword slash. He stood up and looked into the boys blood red eyes, and he felt his debt to the nine tailed fox rise to new heights. He walked to the door, motioning for Naruto to follow.

"Just go in and act normal," he turned to he boy, an idea forming in his head. "We can call it a bloodline for now, ok?" Naruto nodded, a smile working its way onto his face. Thinking of seeing all his friends alive was enough reason to jump into the air and whoop. He stepped in front of his teacher, leading the way into the classroom.

He burst into the room, happiness practically radiating from his body. He turned to face them, shouting greetings. Gasps escaped a few of the students at his new appearance, but before anyone could ask any questions he struck a heroic pose,

"I know, its awesome right! The official and patented Uzumaki bloodline!" Iruka stepped into the room, massaging his temples, and fantasies of a quiet class shattering before his eyes.

"Naruto, you can tell everyone at lunch, just sit down." Naruto nodded in agreement and took his usual seat with Sakura. He gazed around at all of his friends his smile went wider with every second. What little Anbu training he had received kicked in, telling him not to act as if he had seen them all die.

* * *

Naruto had forgotten why he hated the academy. Iruka was a nice guy and all, but the man would talk and talk _and talk_! He glanced around at his classmates, looking for something to do besides listen to the never-ending speech. Shikamaru had already fallen asleep, something Naruto would love to at the moment. Several of the children in the class were occasionally stealing glances at him, giving in to their curiosity. He caught the gaze of a girl who had been staring for a particularly long time and discreetly waved. The girl blushed furiously and stared intently at her paper, embarrassed at being caught.

After what seemed like an eternity, the class bell rung and lunch begun. Naruto was the first out, eager to get away from the group of natural born gossips that was his class. Soon he found himself sitting under a tree directly under the academy, thinking desperately. His hands supported his head as he sighed, trying to think of something to say when the questions inevitably came. He couldn't tell them the truth, that was insane. He got up and started towards the academy to ask his teacher what had happened on the day where he was attacked.

At that thought he stopped mid run, with the expression of someone who was recently slapped in the face. His eyes widened as he realized he was never injured this badly, let alone attacked, this late in his academy days. Remembering Iruka's behavior that morning, he slowly felt around his neck. Suddenly warmth greeted his fingertips. He felt around and discovered a long thin line where the warmth would emanate from. He knew the feeling; it was the feeling of cuts, kunai slashes, and the Nine tail's chakra rapidly healing it. Naruto knew this had never happened, if he had traveled back in time why was it happening? Then a conversation with Shikamaru flashed before his eyes.

* * *

_Naruto leaned against a tree trying to shake the images of the latest battle from his head. The battle was one of the bloodiest in the war, both sides had been cut to less than half of what they had at the start. He glanced over at the body of a sound-nin scout a few feet from him and a sudden feeling of regret came over him. _

_"Sometimes I wish we could just go back and redo it all." He spoke to his lone companion Shikamaru Nara, who gave him a questioning glance._

_"Back in time?" He questioned. He rolled his eyes as his partner nodded his head. "Impossible. It can't happen," At this Naruto pouted childishly at him for ruining his fantasy. "Naruto, think of all the paradoxes, you'd obliterate the universe we live in! Not to mention you'd be defying fate, the gods even!" Naruto smirked_

_"When have I ever listened to authority?" Then he frowned and added, "Shika, you talk like there other universes out there." Shikamaru shrugged_

_"Can you prove there not?" Naruto shook his head and Shikamaru continued, "There are theories of other universes, or dimensions. There shaped exactly like ours, with the same people in them. The differences between them vary, really. In some things would play out exactly like ours would, except you might not wear orange, you see?' Naruto nodded again, still doubtful. "But in others there could be huge differences, like the leaf and its allies might not have won the third great ninja war. Or there might have been none in the first place." Naruto frowned again,_

_"So, say you did travel through dimensions, what would happen?" He asked. Shikamaru struck up a pose he often took up when he was thinking hard. Shortly after he looked up at Naruto._

_"Things would go on as they were, but you would disappear without a trace."_

_"Why would you want to do that? Abandon your world just to go to another that you hope might be better? Thats just wrong." Shikamaru disregarded his words and lied down to gaze at the stars._

_"Maybe, but it would be a hell of a lot easier than time travel."_

* * *

Naruto remained stunned. Had he really just left Kakashi, Sauske, and Lee in the destroyed leaf village, just to go to another dimension? He felt his neck again, one where he was supposed to be dead? He whipped around in anger and slammed his fist into the closest tree to him. The loud crack and crashing noise he had been expecting never came. He pulled his fist away and found the tree unscathed. He stared at the point where his hand had connected, astounded by how weak he was. Then a sharp pain coursed through his hand. He gazed at his fist and saw blood slowly trickling down his hand, tainting his arm with the hated color.

Something had gone very wrong.

* * *

A/N: What do you think? Good, Bad? Review and comment, I'll update as soon as I can.

A/N(Update): I got a review today from a JuMiKu basically saying to check over the flashback scene. So I did and I noticed a few gramatical errors and some OOC moments on Naruto's part. So to people who are rereading this you might notice its different because, well it is. So I thank you JuMiKu. The next update will be uploaded soon.


	5. Reliving the Bell Test

A/N: Finally! I broke 2000 words! Now, that may seem pitiful to some of you, but I go for shorter chapters and shorter waits for updates. So this is the longest chapter I have written so far and I'm pretty happy right now. On another note, I think hates me... I'm serious! I have now experienced both errors 1 and 2. Both of which have blocked me from a. my account or b. the upload a chapter page. so I'm hoping that doesn't happen again so I can keep updating. I also have brought the rating down again because I realized I misread the ratings and the one I thought was for T was actually for K+ so its back to T. But for now, enjoy the chapter!

Disclamer: It occurs to me that I havn't done one of these before so, this counts for all of them. I don't own Naruto, that belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I do, however, own any original characters that pop up in this story, and the plot of the story itself.

Chapter 4: Reliving the Bell Test 

It had been three days since Naruto's return to the academy. Now he was sitting at the tiny restaurant that was Ichiraku ramen, the leaf headband displayed proudly on his forehead. He smiled inwardly at his success so far, Mizuki had been captured and he had played his part perfectly. He then herd a voice beside him, he turned and saw Iruka finishing his bowl of ramen. The teacher smiled at Naruto,

"That was delicious." Naruto nodded in agreement, emptying his seventh. Iruka slid off his stool and yawned. "Congratulations again Naruto. I'll see you at the academy tomorrow, right?" Naruto got of his stool and smiled brightly,

"Wouldn't miss it for anything!" Iruka smiled and left the stand, whistling softly as he went. Naruto waved goodbye to Teuchi and headed for home. He could have traveled by rooftops and gotten home in minutes but Naruto decided to take the long way and walk.

The sandy streets of the leaf were empty late at night, but that made it all the better. The shops were closed the normal bustle of the leaf village was gone. The silence gave off a feeling of serenity. At the same time the peace put him on edge, as if it was a warning, telling him things were about to go south. Lost in his thoughts, Naruto didn't realize that he had been standing at his front door. A cool breeze brought him to his senses, he sighed and fished the key to his apartment out of his pocket and stepped inside, preparing himself for the day ahead.

* * *

"Team seven, Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha." Iruka watched as Sakura and Naruto practically jumped out of their seats as they learned who one their teammates would be, only to sink into a depression when the other was announced. "Your jonin sensei will be Kakashi Hatake."

As he watched the teams being announced, Naruto grew increasingly board. He knew what the teams would be and who would move on. He also knew his team would have to wait another two hours before Kakashi would show up. Soon enough, the jonin started coming and taking their assigned genin. In an hour, team seven was the only team left in the classroom.

At this point Naruto started pacing impatiently across the room and Sakura was fawning over Sasuke, who looked like he was on the verge of falling asleep. After another thirty minutes Naruto found himself halfway through writing a comic strip on the blackboard. He knew they had hit a stumbling point when he saw Sasuke and Sakura actually reading it for something to do.

Naruto checked the clock at the back of the room and groaned. He knew they still had at least another half hour until Kakashi would arrive. Team seven survived, but that didn't stop them for practically jumping with joy when the door slid open revealing their teacher.

"Sorry I got lost-" but he was cut off by an exasperated groan from Naruto.

"Save it sensei, just tell us what you want to do."

"And I thought I had you going," their teacher let out a sigh. "Alright, meet me on the roof." At that he disappeared in a puff of smoke. Team seven collectively groaned and marched up the long spiral staircase that led to the roof.

Sasuke stepped ahead of his teammates and lead the way to the door at the top of the stairs. When they opened the door they found their teacher lazily resting on a railing, reading a small orange book. He glanced at his team and put the book into a pouch strapped to his belt, motioning for his students to sit down.

"Now, I would like you all to share a few things about yourselves. Your likes, dislikes and dreams for the future." He glanced at his students, and when none of them spoke up he continued, "I'll go first. My name is Kakashi Hatake, there are a lot of things I like, and some I dislike. My dreams for the future," He paused to think for a moment, "I don't think I'll tell you that." he finished with a smile. Then he pointed to Naruto who seemed unfazed by Kakashi's introduction, unlike his teammates.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki! I Like Ramen and my dislikes..." he trailed off at this, before continuing at a slower pace. "My dislikes are people who want power so they could hurt others. My goal is to become the hokage so I can protect this village from people like that and everything else that wants to hurt it." Kakashi smiled inwardly at his words, but his expectations were lowered at Sakura's introduction.

Naruto on the other hand was happy to hear something familiar, it was a reassurance that he still knew what was going to happen. He was jolted from his thoughts when a burst of smoke enveloped his teacher. He shook himself and smiled,

"I wouldn't trust him, I'm going to go home and eat as much as I can!" Sasuke merely shook his head and walked away. Sakura followed, muttering something about going on a diet. Naruto waved goodbye and walked away.

* * *

Sasuke Uchiha was annoyed. Just yesterday his entire team had agreed on a time and place, now two of his team was missing. He had been sitting here for over an hour with Sakura in a comfortable silence. They had both arrived to tired and hungry to hold a conversation. After a while Sakura started to name various torture methods to use on the rest of her team that Sasuke was fairly sure someone her age shouldn't know about. He was about to put and end to her ramblings when a familiar voice greeted their ears.

"Ha! I knew he'd be late! I knew it!" Naruto strode over to them, shoving a fist in the air as a sign of victory.

"Does the word punctuality mean anything to you!" Sakura jumped up and shouted at him. Naruto drew an apple from one of the pouches around his waste and took a bite out of it before shaking his head.

"Not a thing." he took another apple from his pouch and held it out to Sakura. "Want one?" At this point Sasuke was almost positive Naruto was going to fall victim to one the Sakura's 'creative' methods of inflicting pain, when a cloud of smoke appeared in between them.

"Yo!" Kakashi stepped out from the smoke, a hand raised in greeting.

"Your late!" was the response. He just smiled at them and showed them the clock he brought. He placed it on a rock in the middle of the training field. He turned to face his students and pulled out two bells.

"The clock is set to noon. All you need to do to pass is to take these bells from me."

"But sensei, there are only two bells." Sakura stated. Kakashi nodded,

"Only two of you will pass this test. The one that doesn't pass will be strapped to one of those poles." He gestured to one the large wooden poles in the middle of the training field. "And that person will have to watch me eat. Then again, there's still the possibility that none of you will pass. In order to pass you must come at me with the intention to kill me, ready?" his students nodded, "Go!"

Sasuke and Sakura jumped into the trees, but Naruto stayed behind with his arms crossed over his chest.

"You and me one on one! Right here right now!" He shouted. Before Kakashi could respond he formed a hand seal and the area was enveloped in smoke. Kakashi looked around and realized he was surrounded by Narutos. What he didn't notice was one of them jumping away.

* * *

Naruto dashed through the trees, trying to find one of his teammates. He was hoping to run into Sakura first, she would be the easiest to convince. As fate would have it, he found her flat on the ground, staring at the battle between Kakashi and his clones.

"Not going to help? Sakura I'm offended." her mouth was covered by a hand to stop her yell of surprise. "Relax, its me, Naruto." She whipped around and faced Naruto, her face contorted in rage.

"What were you thinking? You couldn't have just said my name or something!"

"I don't think what I said would have made a difference." He saw Sakura about to explode again so he continued. "Listen Sakura, Kakashi is tricking us. This test is about teamwork."

"Then why would he only have two bells if were supposed to work together?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He's trying to force us into a situation where teamwork doesn't seem like an option, and that's why we have to work together." Sakura still didn't believe Naruto, and it sounded shaky to himself, but he continued, "Sakura, genin teams are required to be four man squads, one jonin and three genin. It would be impossible for him to lead a three man team." Sakura's eyes widened in comprehension, causing Naruto to smile, "Great, so lets find Sasuke."

* * *

Kakashi threw a punch causing the last clone to disappear. The clones had been stronger then he expected, but they were still only at genin level. He was about to bring out his book again when a voice greeted his ears.

"Heads up sensei!" Kakashi caught the object flying towards his head with ease and found an ordinary apple. He glanced at what he was sure was the original Naruto, but he couldn't be sure.

"Naruto I thought I told you no food." He shook his head, chuckling to himself. Really, should he have expected any different? He looked at a smirking Naruto, whose hands were shaped in the seal for a fire jutsu.

"Here's a lesson for you sensei," Kakashi glanced down at the apple, where a large bite mark could be seen. But instead of an apple core there was a slip of paper slowly burning up. "Expect the unexpected!"

Kakashi's eyes widened as he realized what he was holding. He threw the fruit far from him, just as the fruit exploded. Large amounts of scorched apple and fire rained from the air. Naruto took out two more apples and threw them into the air above him. Sakura jumped out from high in the tree and pierced the apples with kunai, sending them speeding towards Kakashi.

Naruto made the fire hand seal again, and threw a small object at his teacher along with the apples. Kakashi jumped from the explosive fruit, when his vision of his students was obscured as a column of purple smoke erupted in front of him. Kakashi landed, preparing himself for another attack, and soon enough a call could be heard from the other side of the column of smoke.

"_Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!_" the smoke abruptly parted, allowing Kakashi view of a small trail of fire speeding towards him. Kakashi jumped to the side, successfully avoiding the fire, when two figures burst from the smoke.

Sasuke and Sakura ran and attacked Kakashi from both sides. To Kakashi it was painfully easy to dodge their attacks. He was starting to relax when he heard a soft ringing. He turned to see Naruto smiling like an idiot, holding both the bells. Kakashi stared blankly at the dead last of the academy, who had managed to sneak up on a jonin and steal something from his belt. A loud ringing came from the clock in the middle of the training ground, signaling the end of the test.

"Do we meet your standards, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, a small smirk appearing on her face.

"Which are what, might I ask?" Sakura smiled

"This test put us intentionally put us at odds each other, so we would be fighting with ourselves as well as you." Sasuke took a step forward after this.

"In other words, the test was designed to distract us from what the actual test objective was." Naruto then hooked his arms around his teammate's necks, ignoring Sasuke's glare.

"Teamwork!" He smiled brightly at Kakashi, who nodded.

"Congratulations, you pass." Naruto jumped into the air and whooped. "You will start taking missions as team seven tomorrow morning." he then started to walk off but was distracted by Sasuke's question to Naruto.

"So when are you going to tell me about this ultra powerfull jutsu you were talking about?" Kakashi sighed as he discovered that the strong teamwork they had shown just a few minuets earlier had been the result of bribery.

"Maybe I'll tell you, or maybe I won't." Naruto laughed loudly as he ran from the training ground. Then Sasuke's brain processed what Naruto had said,

"What! Get back here you loser!" Sasuke ran after Naruto, trading insults with him. Kakashi found himself chuckling too, surprised of how much they reminded him of Obito and himself.

Maybe this team wouldn't be so bad after all.

* * *

A/N: Hope you like this one, anyway I tried to make the bell test as original as possible. (I dare you to find exploding apples on another story.) so tell me what you think. Review and I'll update as soon as I can.


	6. Diffrences

A/N: This chapter is a little short but I just wanted to get this part out there. The wave ark is going to start soon also, so people who are looking forward to that will just have to wait a little longer. The last chapter got a lot of reviews, so now I wanted to start a response section here so here goes. But I'll only respond to questions or things I want to clear up.

Fuyutaro son wrote: "great chapter, i'm really enjoying the fic, though i have to say, i'm starting to get really tired of every single naruto fic that i come across having either naruto become more demon like, or the kyuubi be good/a slut. T_T can't someone just kill off the kyuubi and have naruto's life get a little better that way? "

Well for me I'm trying to keep this story as close to cannon as possible the nine tails will also play a part in the story later on so I'm probably going to keep him. If your looking for something like that try searching on google. Its better then ff's search engine...

Kail420 wrote: "i like this one, but atleast show some glimpse of madara ."

Madara is going to play a manipulative, behind the scenes role for a while, but he'll make his appearance soon enough.

Thats it for now, feel free to review and enjoy the latest chapter!

* * *

Chapter 5: Differences

Ten ryo. Naruto stared incredulously at the slip of paper in his hand. It was worth about a fiftieth of what he would get for missions when he was an Anbu.

"Naruto are you ok?" A voice beside him asked. He turned to Sakura, depression still evident on his face.

"What the hell could I possibly buy with ten ryo Sakura?" He asked, brandishing the note in his hand. Sakura just raised an eyebrow,

"Yeah, but it's the most we've ever gotten before! That means were getting better right?" She said enthusiastically. Her expression suddenly turned solemn. "Listen Naruto, about the mission-" Naruto waved her off

"I told you its nothing to worry about." He said, trying to cover up his limp as well has he could. "Everybody's ok right?" He smiled at her. She nodded and smiled back. Naruto turned back to the slip of paper in his hand and started doing math in his head.

"If I combine all the money that I've made so far, I'll have enough to buy a loaf of bread and some milk. How did I survive!" Naruto said under his breath. Sakura and Sasuke didn't hear, so they continued on. Sasuke left them first, heading for his home. Sakura parted with him when they reached her house. Leaving Naruto to walk alone.

His house wasn't a particularly long walk from hers so it didn't take long to reach it. As he was reaching to unlock the door pain suddenly shot up his leg. He growled as he remembered how and why it hurt.

* * *

_The mission itself was simple; help some civilians build a house for a middle-class family. The building was already halfway built when they got there, so all they needed to really do was to help carry supplies or heavy objects._

_"Why didn't these guys just buy a pack mule or something?" Naruto complained to Sasuke. The boy shrugged in response, a bit fed up himself. They were hauling large piles of wood, much to large for anybody their size to carry. They walked across the sandy construction zone and dropped their load next to a man standing with a large machine by his side. The man thanked them with a nod in their direction and picked up one of the logs and threw it into the machine. A perfectly rectangular shaft of wood came out the other end._

_ Sasuke gaped at it for a moment before realizing that Naruto was already halfway across the site. He jogged to catch up to him and they continued their work in a comfortable silence, a fact that disturbed Sasuke. Naruto usually was one to talk nonstop, whether the other member of the conversation responded or not. Ever since the attack on him during the academy there had been something off about him. _

_ They finished off the logs and were heading over to help Sakura unload materials. As they walked Naruto created a few dozen more clones to help with the construction. Even though he hated to admit it, Naruto's clones had more than tripled the speed of the construction. It was only noon and at the speed they were going, they might even finish the building by the end of the day._

_ They could see Sakura at this point, she had been working with some clones and workers to unload supplies and place them where they were supposed to go. As they got closer to their teammate, a short construction worker walked by Naruto._

_"Better keep a closer eye on your teammates, demon." He smirked and walked away, leaving a stunned Naruto in his wake. His gaze switched to Sauske slowly looking him over. Sasuke was about to question Naruto when a loud snapping noise was made. They looked towards the source and Sakura standing below a metal pole, the rope holding it up snapping under its weight._

_ Naruto's eyes widened as he saw what kind of position Sakura was in. He sped towards her at a speed that Sasuke had yet to see him reach in training. There was an even louder snap that drew Sakura's attention. Naruto dove at Sakura but just at that moment the pole connected with the ground, sending a large cloud of dust forward and blocking Sasuke's vision. _

_ Sakura was suddenly sent flying out of the cloud of smoke, only to be caught by Sasuke. He set her down and rushed over to where they hoped Naruto would be, Sakura following close behind. The dust slowly cleared, reveling Naruto struggling to take his foot out from under the pole._

_ They hurried to his side and helped him lift the pole off his foot. He gave them a grateful smile, which was quickly replaced by a blush when Sakura hugged him._

_"Thank you." she said, quickly pulling away from him. _

_"So you do care." Naruto said chuckling slightly, earning a glare from Sakura. _

_"This is serious Naruto! Just look at your foot!" The appendage in question was, in Sasuke's eyes, in desperate need of a doctor. The foot was covered in blood and looked to be crushed fairly badly. Naruto frowned as he looked at his foot and stared at it. Suddenly a red glow enveloped the foot, and slowly the foot returned to normal. Sakura glanced up at Naruto, who was smiling brightly._

_"That's one hell of a bloodline!" Sakura said, amazed. Naruto jumped up and gave a mock bow. His foot still hurt him, but they didn't need to know that._

* * *

A loud bang could be heard emanating from the Uchiha compound as the only surviving Uchiha literally kicked his front door in. He roughly took off his sandals and walked into his kitchen trying to stop himself from thinking about what had happened that day. He knew it was about five hours too late for a normal person to be eating, ninja or civilian. The wood beneath his feed creaked loudly as Sauske sped around his kitchen to prepare something worth eating.

He ended up eating soup as his tiredness took over him. He placed his small meal at the table in the center of the kitchen. He quickly sat down and ended up making a pretty good impression of Naruto eating ramen. As he drank the broth his thoughts wandered to the very person that kept him up this late.

The first thing he had done when he left his team was to head off to the village library. He wouldn't be surprised if he had read every book on clans and bloodlines in the library. After all that torturous reading, he hadn't found one damn thing on the Uzumaki's , much less their bloodline. The once open book that was Naruto Uzumaki was now becoming one of Sasuke's greatest mysteries.

At a glance Naruto would seem fine and nothing about his personality would have changed from the academy. But when you spend as much time with him as his genin team, you notice things you wouldn't at a glance. In public, even alone with his team, he would be his normal cheery self. When he was alone, or at least he thought he was, he would become serious. His cheeriness would drop dramatically and he seemed to get lost in thought.

The most noticeable change however was when he was fighting. He seemed to go into a trance and it didn't even seem like he was trying at some points. During their last spar there had been no clear victor for the entire battle. Sauske had only won because Naruto accidentally lost his balance when he made a sloppy block, leaving him open. But was it on purpose? The most infuriating part was he would act like nothings changed, thinking his team would be dumb enough to fall for his act.

Sasuke soon fell asleep at his table, trying to come up with an answer to the mystery that was Naruto Uzumaki.

* * *

Naruto gripped the handle to his apartment, still lost in his thoughts. The distance from him to Sakura was short by his standards. But it had taken him too long to get to her and he had gotten a crushed foot because of it. Now he was forced to accept it, he was very weak.

His punches couldn't leave a dent in a tree, he wasn't even half as fast as he was before and Madara was strong enough to lead the Akatsuki. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and started pacing, trying to think of a way out of his dilemma. Then his hand brushed against something in his pocket.

He fished the object out of his pocket and found a small blank piece of paper. He flipped the paper and felt his stomach lurch. The drawing on the back of the card was small and brown.

It was a dying leaf.


	7. Training

A/N: Hello again readers! Sorry this update took so long but I've had a busy time over the break in updates, with easter, relatives, a stomach bug etc... But anyway, I tried to increase the length of the chapters here, and my first fight scene is in this chapter. So please review, and I will update soon!

Review responces:

Scurryfunger wrote: I probably just missed something, but does Naruto still look sort of Kyuubified? Red eyes, thicker markings, sharper teeth, the works? It kind of sounded like that earlier, but if his appearance is still that demonic, I'd imagine the civilian populace, council, and others would be a bit on edge... which could explain the pipe incident I suppose. Just curious. (partial review)

Me: Yeah, he does still look like that, and yes again that is part of the pipe incident. But, until this chapter I really haven't had the chance to write about reactions except for that little bit in four. You'll also see a little of that in this chapter.

That's really it for now, so enjoy!

Disclaimer:I don't own Naruto, that belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I do, however, own any original characters that pop up in this story, and the plot of the story itself.

* * *

Chapter 6: Training

"He's late again!" Sakura growled. "This is ridiculous! Do you guys know that Ino's team does two missions a day, while were stuck waiting for our lazy ass sensei all the time!" What she got in response was a grunt of acknowledgement from Sasuke. She turned to her teammates who were lying against a nearby tree and let out an exasperated sigh.

"If you're so annoyed how about you go train or something?" Naruto suggested. After this comment Sasuke, who had been about to fall asleep, found himself being almost dragged from his relaxing position by Sakura.

"Come on Sasuke! You like training don't you?" Sasuke glared at Naruto, who cheerily waved back.

"I can't leave you three alone for two minutes can I?" A new voice said from behind them.

"It's been two hours!" Sakura shouted at their sensei after releasing Sasuke. Kakashi waved her off and pulled a small slip of paper.

"Alright, for today the hokage has let us pick our d-ranked mission, there are..." He stared reading down a long list of missions. There was another house to be built, which Naruto didn't feel like doing after their last experience. Others were filing a large amount of paper, helping capture an escaped bear, finding Tora the cat again. Naruto soon found himself dozing off, but was quickly brought back to consciousness by a girlish squeal from Sakura.

"Flower arranging?" Kakashi repeated. Sakura nodded her head; the gesture was quickly followed by a loud and long string of refusals from Sasuke and Naruto. When Kakashi heard this he just smiled at them, "Since your all so excited about it, I guess that's what we'll do." He spun around and started walking from the training ground, which his team took as a signal to follow him.

Kakashi followed his team through the streets of the leaf village, whistling softly. He knew he wouldn't have to move one muscle on this mission and Sakura was sure to have some fun. For Naruto and Sasuke, sometimes it was fun just to mess with them. He saw his students ahead of him and sighed amusedly. Sakura had taken the paper with the directions on it from his hands and was now leading the group. She had said she didn't want him leading them into some ally on the opposite end of the leaf village... again.

Naruto, in his boredom, had taken a kunai out of his pouch and was twirling it around his finger. He was holding the other piece of paper Kakashi had brought that listed the rejected missions in his other hand. He was currently reading the list out loud, trying to find something that would change Sakura's mind, but to no avail.

Sasuke was glaring at the dirt below his feet, trying to shove the images of what Sakura would try to do to him at a flower shop out of his mind. When he finally decided to look up he looked straight into the eyes of a merchant. The merchant gave him a disapproving look before returning his gaze to a customer that was in front of the small stand. Sasuke stopped walking and stared at the merchant. His actions gained the attention of his teammates and Sakura spoke up.

"Sasuke, is there something wrong?" She said concernedly. Her voice brought Sasuke back from his thoughts.

"No, just thinking." He said. He jogged to them and they started walking again. Sasuke was now giving the crowd of civilians that filled the streets of the village his full attention. He saw a different expression on each person, some looked as if they didn't care or they were just good at hiding their feelings. Others however, weren't as gifted.

Sasuke saw many who looked at Sakura and him with the same expression as the merchant, but others looked at them with fear. As they continued he found one person that disturbed him to his core. Others would just cast a worried look in their direction and hurry on with their business, but the woman he saw wore an expression of absolute terror.

She had nothing but rags on her body, and was covered in dirt. She had a small boy clutched in her arms and she was guarding him like he was a lifeline. He glanced at Naruto and found him looking in the same direction. There was a brief flash of determination on his face and he started to walk towards the woman.

Naruto put on a bright smile as he strode across the path. The woman, however, had the expression of a cornered animal. Naruto reached the woman and pulled out his wallet and dropped a few coins into the woman's lap. He gave her another bright smile before walking back to his team.

Sakura gave him a good-natured punch in the arm as he walked up next to her. They continued on their way right after that, but Sasuke kept his eyes on the woman. She stared at the money before her for a long time. Then, just as they were about to turn a corner she kicked the money away and ran with the child.

Sasuke turned to Naruto to see if he had seen her, but he had his head facing forward. But, if only for a moment, he saw the smile on Naruto's face falter. But he couldn't be sure.

* * *

Naruto heard the loud clinking of coins and could guess what had happened. He kept his head down for the rest of the walk. Soon they arrived at the flower shop, which he was about to walk into when Sakura let out a loud gasp. Pushing the woman to the back of his mind he walked out to Sakura.

He found her staring open mouthed at a sign on the front of the store. Naruto followed her gaze and read the sign.

_Yamanaka Flower Shop_

"Hey Naruto," Sakura said after a long silence. "Do you still have that list of other missions we could do?" Naruto reached into his pockets and threw the slip of paper to Sakura, but Kakashi caught it in midair.

"We already informed the Hokage that we would take this mission, so this is the one you will do." He said flatly. Naruto spun on his heel and walked into the shop. Once the door opened a loud ringing alerted everyone in the shop.

A man, who had obviously been sleeping at the counter before they had walked in, greeted them.

"Hello and welcome to the Yama-" But he cut himself off. His eyes traveled to their headbands and his smile brightened. "Are you the ninja I requested?" He asked. Team seven collectively nodded, causing the man's smile to grow even bigger.

"I'm a shophand the Yamanakas hired, Izu, and I'm afraid Ino's mother has come down with a high fever and left me in charge of the shop. I really haven't the slightest idea how to run this place. So all I need is someone who knows how to run something like this." Naruto and Sasuke both turned to Sakura, waiting for her to tell them what they were supposed to do, being just as clueless as Izu.

Sakura sighed and started shouting orders through the house. Before he knew what to think, Naruto and Sasuke found themselves running through the entirety of the flower shop, gathering supplies, flowers or other things. Soon they were running a professional shop and Sakura seemed to be having the time of her life, being able to order her two teammates around.

After an hour it became clear exactly why Sakura had wanted this mission. Within the hour they had been there Sakura had approached Sasuke with many different flowers and compliments. Naruto soon found himself laughing at Sasuke's obvious misery. Working at a flower shop is not where Sasuke would ever imagine himself working in the future, and here he was. That and Sakura's failing attempts at wooing Sasuke, forced the Uchiha into checking the clock every chance he got, just to see if it started moving faster.

Once they had deemed it was late enough to leave the shop, they said goodbye to Izu and walked towards the door. Right as they were about to open it, however, it opened revealing Ino. Her eyes narrowed once she saw Sakura,

"What are you doing here?" She asked, suspicion evident in her voice.

"Mission." Sakura replied coldly. Ino gave Izu a questioning glance, causing him to break into nervous laughter. She moved from where she had been standing to allow them an exit. Sakura walked out first, but not without glaring at Ino as she went. Naruto and Sasuke followed, giving their own goodbye. As Sasuke passed Ino gave him a flirty wink, causing Sasuke to quicken his pace.

* * *

Naruto sighed as he walked along the deserted forests near his village. He had forgotten just how much Ino and Sakura had hated each other. He would have to help them make up, unlike last time where he just sat around.

He had parted with his team a while before his walk. Now he was heading to do some extra training. It was a method he had devised a few days before and was inspired by Guy's motto "Outdo the you of yesterday" or something like that.

He approached his favorite training ground and jumped into the middle of the field. Right as he landed he formed a hand seal and one hundred clones surrounded him. He took out a kunai from the pouch around his leg and faced forward, ready for the attack.

The training was, in short, a huge spar with shadow clones. The actual fighting part would help his fighting skills, stamina, and overall fitness. The training would also test his chakra when he would summon clones. Keeping all the clones in existence and summoning new ones would increase his chakra levels and control.

One of the clones finally charged forward, being one of the bravest or stupidest. Naruto didn't care as he threw the kunai in his hand straight at the clone effectively dispelling it and a few behind it before one clone caught it.

The clone threw the kunai directly above Naruto's head where another clone caught it and threw it straight towards Naruto. Naruto jumped out of the way and into the crowd of clones. There was a momentary confusion as to where he was, but the problem was quickly solved when a large group of the clones were taken out all at once.

The remaining clones charged at Naruto from all sides causing him to instinctively start forming a rasingan in his hand. He quickly stopped and pulled out another kunai, reminding himself that he had limited himself to taijutsu only. He charged at the clones right in front of him and slashed one with the small knife. But he felt a clone come into contact with his back, causing him to be sent stumbling at the group he had been trying to destroy.

The group of clones saw the golden opportunity and threw a barrage of blows at Naruto. He was sent flying backwards and he hit the ground hard. He got up in the exact place he had been before and he discovered his clone-free space had been almost cut in half.

He took up a defensive position after that and waited for the attacks to come. Two clones were the first to attack; they ran forward with kunai in their hands. Naruto ducked under their attacks and punched their stomachs, causing them to explode in a cloud of smoke.

Right after Naruto leaped into the air and sent a barrage of kunai and shurikan at a small group of clones and dispelling them all. Another clone met him in midair and attempted to punch him but Naruto caught the punch and kicked it, sending it crashing into another group of clones.

Naruto dived down from his position in midair and slammed his fist into the ground when he reached it. The punch, to his dismay, did nothing to the ground but color a small portion of it red. Before he could react a foot met his face and he was sent flying again.

He was kicked again in mid-air, which sent him higher up. Naruto recognized the formation of the clones and turned himself to face the sky. He blocked the foot of another clone that had met him in mid-air. He was still sent crashing to the ground but he dispelled a few more clones during his crash.

Naruto jumped up from the small crater that he had made and dashed toward two more clones. He dispelled the clones and turned to kick the clone that was attempting to sneak up behind him. His foot connected, sending it into a large group of clones and dispelling them all.

There were only four clones left now. They nodded at each other and two of them shot forward. Naruto punched one that was slightly ahead of the other. He then jumped from the punch that came out of the smoke and kicked the hand as he went. He landed and saw the remaining clones charging at him with a rasingan in their hands. Naruto waited for the clones to come close enough to him and swept the feet of the clones. He punched them both as they fell, dispelling them and the rasingan.

Naruto smiled triumphantly as the smoke of the last clones cleared. He immediately made the seal to summon more, but was stopped when a sharp pain came up his side. He was then forced to concede early.

* * *

Kiba was jumping for joy when he head what his team's next mission would be, a c-ranked mission that fit them perfectly. All they had to do was track someone that was rumored to have been sneaking around the leaf village. Easy right? Wrong.

"Hinata, have you found anything yet?" He practically whined to his female teammate. Hinata shook her head dejectedly and continued to search. They had been at it literally all day, they had received the mission at eight that morning and had been searching non-stop ever since then.

"Kiba on your right!" Kurenai's stern voice crackled through the earpiece he was wearing. He looked in the suggested direction and found a blur of movement shooting across the rooftops. Kiba launched himself upon the target, expecting the surprise attack to work. But his target stopped and slammed his fist into Kiba's stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He collapsed on top of the rooftop just as a cloud passed over the moon, successfully blocking whatever light they had in the dead of night.

Suddenly a group of shurikan ripped through the night and slammed into the target's clothes. The now confirmed man cried out as he was pinned to the wall opposite of them. Kurenai landed gracefully beside Kiba,

"Good job Kiba." She said just as Hinata and Shino jumped down next to them. The cloud that had graciously blocked their vision cleared revealing their target to be none other then Naruto Uzumaki.

"Naruto!" cried Hinata and Kiba, one out of worry the other out of fury.

"You!" He called back. Kurenai jumped onto the wall Naruto was currently pinned to and removed the shurikan. Naruto jumped off of the wall and landed beside team eight.

"What the hell was that about!" He practically yelled at them. Kiba was about to shout back when Kurenai stepped in between them.

"Naruto, were sorry. We thought you were the ninja we were tracking. You were jumping around the buildings late at night, its only natural to assume."

"Sorry about that, I was doing some extra training and lost track of time. I was heading back to my house." He replied nervously. "But isn't tracking ninja a little high for a d-ranked mission?" he asked.

"That's because it's a c-ranked." Kiba said with a cocky smile, taking the opportunity to rub his victory in Naruto's face. Naruto's mouth fell open at his words.

"That's awesome!" He said a little too excitedly. But before Kiba could continue his boasting Kurenai cut in.

"Naruto shouldn't you be getting home?" She asked. Naruto nodded

"Yeah, I'll tell you if I see anything." he then said goodbye. They jumped in opposite directions, and Kiba suddenly realized as he and his team started to search again. They had just lost their only chance at entertainment for the rest of the night.


	8. Two of Four Demons

A/N: Well here it is, the next chapter of Red and the start of the wave ark. I hope you like this chapter as I think its a pretty good one. So review, alert, favorite, or all of the above and enjoy the chapter!

Review Responses:

Fuyutaro san wrote: I probably just missed something, but does Naruto still look sort of Kyuubified? Red eyes, thicker markings, sharper teeth, the works? It kind of sounded like that earlier, but if his appearance is still that demonic, I'd imagine the civilian populace, council, and others would be a bit on edge... which could explain the pipe incident I suppose. Just curious.

why do you have that posted several times? and if you're the one writing this, then why are you asking that?

Me: Well that was a typo that I corrected a while after I posted. You see when I respond to reviews I copy and pase the review to make sure that I don't type the review wrong. That and it's easier. I accidentally pasted it to the wrong place and didn't notice it until after I posted. You were just one of the unlucky ones that read it before I corrected it.

* * *

Chapter 7: Two of Four Demons

Naruto's eyes flew open as his peaceful dream abruptly ended. He lied in his bed for a few more minutes. He glanced up at his ceiling and was disturbed to find a multitude of kunai jammed into it.

As the events of the previous night came rushing back to him he had to laugh. In his anxiety for the day ahead he had taken to using his ceiling for target practice. Then he remembered what exactly had been bothering him. He leaped out of his bed, sending his sheets flying in the process. Naruto stuck to his ceiling and began pulling the kunai out of the holes he had made.

Once the kunai had been put into their proper places Naruto jumped from the ceiling and landed in the middle of his room. As he continued through his morning routine he found himself humming loudly. It didn't bother him; once he realized it he just hummed louder to make an example of his good mood.

After dressing himself in his normal orange outfit, Naruto sped out of his apartment. He quickly slammed the door behind him shut and locked it. Naruto then turned to the staircase that connected his apartment to the ground below.

A smirk came across his face as he jumped onto the railing and dived onto the streets below. He landed with a large crash, sending dust everywhere. Several people yelled in surprise at the impact. Before anyone could find out who created the minor explosion, Naruto jumped from the ground and landed on the rooftops. He pumped chakra into his feet and dashed forward, charging across the multicolored buildings. He smiled as the huge building that contained the office of the Hokage came into view.

This time, he would make sure his mission in the wave went perfectly, no exceptions.

* * *

In his entire carrier as hokage Sarutobi had never met a ninja quite like Naruto. He stared into the eyes of said genin and Naruto stared right back. Sarutobi could tell he was loosing this contest, why shouldn't he give them a c-ranked mission? It was another matter entirely that he was staring straight at the eyes of the nine tailed fox, but it certainly helped Naruto's case.

"No." He said plainly, completely disregarding Naruto's protests.

"But why not!" Naruto shouted back. "Were experienced enough, we've done, like, a dozen d-ranks!" Sarutobi shook his head at Naruto's childish act. C-ranked missions were much too dangerous for a ganin fresh out of the academy.

He turned to deny Naruto's request once again but something on his face made him falter. Naruto's expression was not what he expected at all. Where Sarutobi was expecting to a childish pout or an overconfident grin, he found something else, desperation.

Sarutobi kept eye contact with Naruto for what felt like hours, but could have been seconds. He noticed Naruto's lips begin to move, and they formed a word that made Sarutobi's eyes widen.

Tazuna

He slowly shuffled through the list of C-ranks that had been giving to them today and he found it. A mission request from the land of waves to bodyguard a bridge builder named Tazuna.

Sarutobi could do nothing at stair at the piece of paper in his hands. How had Naruto known about the mission? He glanced up at the pleading eyes of Naruto and back at the paper.

"Bring in our guest." His voice was calm, collected, the polar opposite of his thoughts. How had Naruto known about the mission? Had he sneaked into his office again? That had to be it, right?

"These snot-nosed brats are my guards?" A loud slurred voice broke the tense silence.

Naruto turned to the voice with a smile on his face. Tazuna stood in the doorway with a bottle of sake in one had and the other supporting him in his obviously drunk state.

"And you, the short one with the stupid look on his face. You honestly want me to believe that you're a ninja?" He said, pointing an accusing finger at Naruto. Naruto's smile almost immediately disappeared. He was Naruto Uzumaki, Anbu class ninja at a kage level, or, at least he was. But that didn't mean that comment would sit well with him.

"Alright, lets go!" He yelled. Right after he turned and strode straight out of the office. As he walked off he head the mumbles of disbelief from the people in the office.

"I haven't even given him the mission yet." Sarutobi said with exasperation evident in his voice. Kakashi chose this time to speak,

"I'm positive that he's going to go no matter what you do lord hokage." Naruto heard the agreement from his teammates and nodded in agreement himself. Haku's and Zabuza's lives depended on him.

* * *

Sasuke was the first to arrive at the village gates. He was honestly surprised that he was the only one here. Usually at least Sakura would show up on time, Naruto could be somewhat unreliable when it came to times. Sometimes he would show up hours early, but sometimes he would be almost as late as Kakashi.

Almost as if the thought had conjured her, Sakura came running up to him with Naruto directly behind her. They were prepared to wait for a few hours until Kakashi showed up, but he came just a few minutes after Naruto. Tazuna was following Kakashi through the crowd.

They left immediately after Kakashi's arrival. Sasuke found himself excited for this mission. Like Naruto who had yelled it out for everyone to hear, this was his first time out of the village and he was interested to see just what was outside of the village gates.

He was slightly disappointed in what he found. During the next few minuets he found out why the village hidden in the leaves was called such.

You look up, you see trees.

You look right, a tree.

Left, another tree

Down, you might get lucky and see a few leaves or the trunk of a tree.

Sasuke sighed and tried to get his mind off of the endless tree line. Naruto was what came to mind. While it might have seemed like nothing to any other genin, the Uchiha pride themselves on their eyes. Naruto had intimidated the hokage this morning in order to get a C-ranked mission.

There was no other explanation. The hokage and Naruto had a small staring contest this morning, and after a little while the hokage had seem taken aback. Something Naruto had done had disturbed him greatly, but Sasuke was behind Naruto and he didn't see what he did, and it frustrated him to no end.

Sasuke turned to where he last saw Naruto to question him but he was gone. Then someone spoke his name directly beside him. Sasuke unwillingly let out a cry of surprise, causing his group to turn towards him.

A small blush tinting his cheeks, he turned to Naruto,

"Do that again and I'll make this trip a living hell for you, understand?" He asked. Naruto paled slightly at the obvious threat that involved great pain. He nodded slightly,

"Sasuke, do you see that puddle over there?" He asked, pointing a finger at said puddle.

"What of it?" He asked. It was probably another stupid prank from him. But Naruto's next words caught him off guard.

"Sasuke, it hasn't rained in weeks. Where the hell is a puddle supposed to come from?" Sasuke glanced back over at the puddle. It truly was an odd sight, a small puddle off to the side of a dirt road. Everything else was dry, almost needing of water. "But, I've got a plan." Naruto said, leaning in to whisper in Sasuke's ear.

Sasuke had to admit, in his mind anyway, the plan was ingenious. He would never say that face however. They slowly and discreetly went into their positions. Naruto went directly behind Kakashi and his hand hovered dangerously over his kunai pouch. Sasuke walked over to the front of the group and silently put a kunai and shurikan in his hand.

Sasuke kept a wary eye on the puddle as they passed it, but it remained exactly like normal water. They walked on and the puddle progressively smaller in Sasuke's eyes.

There was a sudden splash and a battle cry from behind him. Then there was a loud clanking of metal meeting metal and sounds of struggling. Sasuke turned to find two mist ninja, judging by their headbands bound together by a long spiked chain. Naruto had jammed a kunai into the chain and was holding them in place.

"Duck!" Naruto yelled and he released the chain. The two ninja acted as if they were recently shot from a slingshot and were thrown forward. The small group of leaf ninja and their client did as told and watched the chain and two ninja soar fly directly over their heads.

Sasuke heard Naruto's voice calling to him and remembered his part in the plan. He threw the shurikan straight into the chain, pinning it and the ninja to a tree. Sasuke then threw the kunai in his hands into the shurikan to keep it in place.

There was a blur of orange beside of him and he charged towards the two ninja. Their punches connected at the same time, sending the two ninja flying backwards and detaching them from the long chain. There was a loud crash from the forest and Naruto turned to the group behind him.

"You going to help or just stand there?" He asked. Sasuke turned around to see their group but noticed that Kakashi was missing. This team had a really bad habit of not being where they were supposed to be. Then there was a loud scream of pain from the forest.

They all turned towards the sound to find Kakashi with both the mist ninja in a headlock, hanging limply at his side. His eye was the only indication that he was smiling. His smile then disappeared as he turned to Tazuna,

"I think, we deserve some answers."

* * *

Nagato, leader of the akatsuki, strode through the halls of this hideout. While it was called that it really wasn't. Almost the entire hidden rain village knew of his existence, just not what he did. He stretched out his bony and pale arms; standing in a machine with poles sticking out of your body wasn't exactly good for your complexion.

This was one of the times where he could walk freely through the place that he lived without an artificial body. These walks were too few and too far apart for his liking, but the akatsuki's goals were much more important to him. Nagato walked out of an arched doorway and the sensation of rain pounding against his body greeted his senses.

The village hidden in the rain wasn't called such for nothing after all. He placed his hands on the cold steel railing on the edge of the balcony. He gazed over the village and a small smirk overcame his lips.

This is the village where he had succeeded, where they considered him god. All he had to do was show the other villages true pain, like the ones this village had experienced, and they would come over to his side. Nagato suddenly felt the presence of another person beside him.

"Madara." He said plainly. A small chuckle was head before his masked partner appeared beside him.

"I never could pull one over on you, could I Nagato?" Nagato shook his head in responce.

"Anyway," Madara said in that childish voice that he adopted when he wasn't getting serious. "I have something I want you to do for me." Madara pulled a scroll from the inside of his robes and handed it to Nagato.

Madara then disappeared, traveling to a different place then this one. Nagato broke the seal that bound the scroll with his instructions in it and let the paper open. The paper was short, something Nagato wasn't expecting of a sealed scroll. The scroll had one word written on it in large bolded letters.

_Die_

Nagato felt his body go numb, while he watched the scroll splatter with blood. His vision became blurred as he collapsed to the ground. He could hear Konan's screams coming from below and Madara's insane laughter. As his vision darkened and the numbness of his body overtook him, he heard Madara's last words to him.

"Don't despair Nagato. With your death, I will show this world true pain."

And Nagato, leader of the akatsuki, bearer of the rinnegan, and god to his village, died with a smile on his face.


	9. The Missing MissingNin

A/N: Ok, first sorry for the long wait, but in exchange I brought the longest chapter ever. This one is a full 4,655 words (not including authors notes.) So I'm really happy that.

Please review, follow, favorite or all of the above and, most importantly, enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 8: The Missing Missing-Nin

"This is as far as I'll take you." Spoke the man controlling the small boat. Naruto and his group nodded when he said this. They had stopped at a small wooden dock that was built out from a small island. Naruto was the first out of the boat, and was soon followed by Kakashi, Sakura, Sasuke, and Tazuna. The small group watched the boat slowly drift away and into the mist that surrounded the wave. When they could no longer see it, Kakashi spoke,

"Well, lets get moving." He turned around and walked straight into the woods that made up the island. Naruto found himself walking in front of Tazuna, with Sakura and Sasuke on either side of him. Naruto kept himself on high alert, knowing that Zabuza would appear fairly early during this walk.

The wave country was made of many different islands stuck together with bridges made of wood or stone. They were currently walking on a island that had not been inhabited, but worked as a forest area. However the normally beautiful sights that would accompany such a walk were marred by the uneasy silence between them.

Naruto cringed as he heard a rustling in the bushes, but put it off as some animal messing around. Zabuza had thrown his sword at them when he attacked not hid around in the bushes. They continued on and soon Naruto could see the break in the island where Zabuza should be hiding.

As they moved forward the rustling in the bushes got louder and less discrete. By this time the entire group had noticed it and was keeping a watchful eye on the bushes. The noise coming from the bushes became louder and louder and Kakashi had stopped the group and was watching it. Naruto saw him slowly slip a kunai out of the pouch strapped to his leg.

Naruto was on the verge of pulling out one of the small knives that was strapped to his leg like him, but he just watched with bated breath along with the rest. The rustling became louder and soon the bush right in front of them began to part.

They all let out sighs of relief when a small white rabbit came hopping out of the bush. Naruto couldn't help but laugh that they all had been so on edge because of a rabbit. Naruto started to walk off again but then some kind of warning went off in his head.

Naruto stopped as the memories of his first time in the wave country came back to him. His eyes widened as he remembered the rabbit that was placed there to distract them. As soon as he realized this he jumped on top of Tazuna and screamed for everyone to duck.

The attack never came.

Naruto lifted his head and gazed around. The forest was calm, completely undisturbed. He warily stood up and brushed himself off.

"You ok Naruto?" Sakura asked. "You don't look too good." This comment worried Naruto even more. The first time he took the wave mission Sakura had told him off for overreacting. He must have looked terrible. Naruto tried to mask his pale face by giving her a wide smile.

"Yeah, just thought I heard something." He lied "Potential B-ranked mission and... stuff." He finished with a forced laugh. But Sakura frowned at him, obviously not fooled. He turned back to the path and started walking ahead of the group, keen to get away from this particular patch of woods.

Suddenly something grabbed his shoulder. Naruto whipped around and was about to punch whoever was insane enough to bother him at a time like this. He found Sasuke with a overconfident look on his face. He casually pulled ahead of Naruto and spoke,

"If your scared, why don't you just go home and leave this mission to the professionals?" he said, the cocky smile still on his face. Naruto's reaction however, was not what they expected. He nodded slightly and let Sasuke take the lead, still eying the trees. Naruto could feel Kakashi's gaze directed at him, but he didn't bother to look back. Zabuza was much more important than what they were thinking right now.

They started moving again and not once did Naruto take his gaze away from the tree line. After what seemed like a few seconds the ground beneath him changed feel and sound. He spared the ground a glace and saw they were already on the stone bridge connecting the islands. They had been walking for much longer than he thought.

Naruto took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself. He forced himself to look forward at Sasuke's back. He could see the smirk on Sasuke's face and thought that Sasuke probably took his relenting as a personal triumph.

They continued along the bridge at a brisk pace. Naruto could see his nervousness was starting to rub off on everyone else. It was just too quiet for anyone to be calm. No birds were singing, there were no crickets chirping, no rabbits moving in the bushes, there was nothing but their own footsteps.

As they stepped off of the stone bridge Naruto heard a soft whistling. He dove out of the way of the incoming senbon just as they hit. Almost instantly it seemed, every ninja present surrounded Tazuna and took out kunai.

Naruto glanced at the senbon that were now imbedded in the ground and realized that from where he was standing he would have been killed if those hit. That eliminated Haku being the attacker. Even on the bridge, Haku was only aiming to incapacitate, not kill.

Suddenly Naruto felt himself become calm, strange how being attacked was more relaxing to him then being left alone. He looked to his side and saw Sasuke giving him a confused look.

"Aren't going to chicken out on us are you Uchiha?" Naruto joked.

"Your one to talk." Sasuke said. "Weren't you the one who was terrified a few seconds ago?"

"At least I know that we're being attacked now. So my intuition was right, ha!" Sasuke just shook his head and turned away.

"Sasuke, Naruto! Were in the middle of a battle of a potential jonin level opponent!" Kakashi's voice effectively stopped their small argument. More senbon came speeding towards them and they all dove out of the way. Kakashi grabbed Tazuna and pulled him along with him.

More senbon came at them but they were aimed at Sasuke, who batted them out of the air with a kunai. More came at Sakura, who copied Sasuke. Naruto glanced around, despretly trying to find their opponent. The senbon started coming from all angles and at a much faster rate.

Naruto saw Kakashi doing the same thing as him while simultaneously protecting Tazuna. He jumped away from another barrage of senbon and landed on the other side of the bridge. He desperately looked around to try and find the culprit of the attacks but to no avail.

His gaze finally fell to the tree line behind him. More senbon suddenly came speeding towards him from the trees. He dashed under the senbon and jumped up and towards the tree where he saw the senbon be thrown. Just as he was about to reach a branch, something hard slammed into his chest. Naruto was thrown backwards and landed on the ground, hard.

"Naruto!" He heard Kakashi shout. Naruto tried to stand but something landed on his body. He felt something sharp press against his chest. Naruto raised his head and gasped when he saw the attacker.

"What have you done with Zabuza?" Haku asked menacingly. He was holding a senbon directly over his heart. Naruto swallowed nervously as he felt the senbon lower and the point press against his skin.

"W-what do you mean?" In response Haku lowered the senbon away from his heart and pressed it into his skin.

"What did you do with Zabuza?" He asked again. Naruto had never seen an expression of rage on Haku's face, let alone one this fierce. Naruto ignored the pain and turned away from Haku. His teammates were frozen on the spot, Naruto could see Kakashi's face screwed up in concentration while he was trying to think a way out of the situation.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Naruto said turning back to face Haku. What began as a small stinging sensation in his chest started growing in intensity as Haku pressed the senbon deeper into his chest.

"Listen," Kakashi said, deciding to take the direct approach. "Whatever Naruto has done to offend you I doubt it was intentional." After he said this Haku slowly got off of Naruto. Naruto sighed in relief as Haku pulled the senbon out of his chest.

"Well I'm glad you und-" he started to say when Haku released him but Haku's foot slammed him back into the ground. Haku pulled more senbon out of a pouch strapped to his waste and held them in his hands.

"You seem like the leader." He said. Kakashi's eye narrowed as he and Haku stared at each other. Haku raised the senbon and prepared to throw them. "Tell me what you have done with Zabuza." Haku said. Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow,

"Zabuza Momochi?" Kakashi asked.

"The same."

"Why would a young boy like you be worried about a low life missing-nin like Zabuza?" Haku pointed the senbon in his hand at Kakashi,

"Take that back." He said. Naruto saw Kakashi's eye flicker to him and he saw him sigh. Naruto glanced at Haku's foot firmly placed on his chest and growled. This was embarrassing, the most powerful ninja in the leaf being held down by a genin. Not only was he making things much harder for Kakashi but also this was a major blow to his pride.

He sighed and rested his head against the ground. Naruto lifted his hands to try and pry Haku's foot off of him. Haku noticed however, and turned his other hand filled with senbon so it was facing Naruto.

"Don't move." Haku said plainly. Naruto slowly lowered his hands, but not before he noticed the claws that were currently on his hands. He smirked as he remembered he was using the nine tail's chakra. He took a long and deep breath and filled his lungs with the demon's chakra. Haku noticed the sudden spike in Naruto's chakra a second to late. He desperately threw the senbon at Naruto's neck but Naruto released the built up chakra in an animalistic roar.

Haku was thrown off of Naruto and sent crashing into the forest. Naruto jumped up and pointed his finger at where he thought Haku had landed,

"I'm not your damn hostage!" He yelled. Naruto pulled out a kunai and deflected the senbon speeding towards him. Haku jumped out of the bushes and charged at him. Naruto sped towards Haku and their weapons connected, entering them into a battle of pure force.

It became clear that Naruto was the better in sheer power. Haku was soon forced backwards as Naruto pushed himself forward. Realizing that he would lose like he was, Haku raised his free hand and started going through seals. Naruto realized what Haku was doing and jumped away from him. His escape was stopped when he collided with something smooth.

Naruto fell back to the ground and landed with a large crash. He sat up and looked around himself and realized he and Haku were currently surrounded by mirrors. Naruto could see water from the lake below the stone bridge they had just crossed flying into the mirrors and forming more.

"I'm going to ask you once more." Haku said menacingly. "What have you done to Zabuza?"

"We haven't done anything!" Naruto yelled back.

"Lies." Haku turned and ran straight into one of the mirrors surrounding them. The mirror seemed to ripple like water as it sucked Haku into itself. Naruto glanced around at all the mirrors around him, trying to find the one that was hiding Haku.

Haku appeared in the mirror above him for just long enough to throw a few senbon at him. Naruto jumped out of the way and backed into one of the mirrors. He felt a small jab at his skin and jumped to the side. The senbon flew out of the mirror behind him a second later. Naruto knew he could probably defeat Haku if he used chakra but Kakashi and his team were watching.

"Haku!" He shouted, attempting to reason with the boy. "We didn't-" But he stopped when Haku appeared in the mirror in front of him. Haku glared at him before stepping out of the mirror,

"How did you know my name?" He asked calmly. Naruto cringed as he realized his mistake.

"Lucky guess?" Naruto lied. Haku was obviously unconvinced as his eyes narrowed and he began to walk back to one of the mirrors. Just as Haku was about to enter the mirror, it shattered. Haku jumped away, but Kakashi appeared behind him and delivered a chop to the back of his neck.

The mirrors around them turned into water and fell to the ground with a loud splash. Naruto saw jumped out of the large puddle and landed next to Sakura. Kakashi slung Haku over his shoulder and followed Naruto.

There was a long and tense silence after that. Naruto looked around and found Kakashi staring at him suspiciously. Naruto realized with a jolt that Kakashi had heard the conversation between him and Haku. Then Sakura, his saving grace, broke the silence.

"So," She began. "What do we do now Kakashi-Sensei?" Kakashi visibly shook himself. He adjusted the boy on his shoulder before he responded,

"I say we wait till this boy wakes up and then question him. He didn't seem be after Tazuna." They all nodded in agreement. Kakashi walked over to the stone bridge and placed Haku on it. Kakashi rested Haku's head on the railing and stepped back. Kakashi turned towards Naruto and to him it looked like he wanted answers.

Then, suddenly and without warning Naruto felt as if his head had spit open. The pain was so intense and it came without any kind of premonition. He clutched his head and screamed. Naruto could hear the worried voices of his teammates but ignored them. He fell to his knees as the pain in his head intensified. He pressed his hands into his heads with more force but the pain did not subside. Naruto's vision became blurry, and he finally fell uncurious.

* * *

Sasuke breathed a sigh of relief as he felt the warm liquid rush down his through. He lowered the cup of warm tea in his hands and took yet another deep and calming breath. He was brimming with confidence at their success so far. They had defeated three attacking ninja and had protected Tazuna throughout the entire thing.

"How is it?" Asked a female voice behind him. Sasuke turned toward Tsunami and put on a small smile.

"It's very good." He said. Tsunami seemed satisfied with this answer and, after giving him a warm smile, walked out of the room. He took another sip of the warm tea and set the cup down. Sasuke put his hands behind his head and lied down. A soft chirping of birds from the night greeted his senses. He was getting very relaxed when he heard the door beside him open.

Sakura sat down next to him, fully dressed in her pajamas. Sasuke heard Sakura sip from the glass of tea before she set it down.

"Are you sure its ok if we keep that boy here?" Sakura asked. She sounded worried to Sasuke. He glanced around Sakura and into the hall where there was a door in the middle of the wall. Naruto and the boy were currently sleeping in that room, but the boy was tied down with a seal that Kakashi had made in case he woke when none of them were around and attacked someone.

"Kakashi sealed him to the floor, remember?" Sasuke responded. "And besides, if the loser can hold his own against him, we've got nothing to worry about."

"But what if he was holding back before?" Sakura asked. Sasuke had thought that Sakura had seemed worried once they decided to take the boy with them, now he knew why.

"We get Kakashi to take him down again. I mean he's our age, what could he possibly do to a jonin?"

This seemed to reassure Sakura, as she dropped the topic of the strange boy that was currently sleeping in the room next to them.

"Who is this Zabuza?" Sasuke asked after a particularly awkward stretch of silence.

"You mean that guy the boy kept going on about?" Sakura said. Sasuke nodded,

"Kakashi-Sensei said that he was a missing-nin, but if he was, why was this boy so worried about him?"

"I guess we'll just ask him when he wakes up." Sakura said. She took another sip of tea before letting out a large yawn. Sasuke repressed a sigh after hearing it. She was probably staying awake so she could spend some 'alone' time with him. Sasuke stood up and walked towards the sink across the room.

"Better get some sleep. Kakashi said he's going to teach us something new tomorrow." Sasuke gulped down the last of his tea and set it down on the counter in front of him. Sakura chose to take her tea up with her and stood up as well. She started to walk towards the stairs that led to the upstairs when she stopped at the door that led to the room where Naruto and the boy were sleeping.

She quietly opened the door and checked inside it before nodding and walking away. Sasuke soon followed suit and walked towards the stairs. He noticed Sakura had left the door to their room open and looked in it himself.

The room was pitch black and Sasuke could barely see the outlines of the two boys in the room, but that wasn't what unnerved him. A pair of blood red eyes with silted pupils were staring right back at him. They seemed to glow and illuminate parts of the room.

Sasuke's vision was suddenly obscured by flurry of green. He realized he hadn't stopped walking and was currently staring at a wall. Sasuke jumped back to the opening in the wall to see if the eyes were still watching him. He saw Naruto and the boy sleeping soundly in the blankets they had set out for them.

Sasuke glanced back at the empty glass on the counter at the opposite end of the room. He walked towards it and picked it up. Looking the glass over brought no new knowledge except reassurance that Tsunami was not trying to poison him. Sasuke set the glass back down and walked back to the door.

There was no change in the two occupants. Sasuke ran a hand through his hair and walked away from the door. Deciding he was just too tired for his eyes to work properly, Sasuke entered his room and fell asleep.

Sasuke was awakened from his peaceful dream by a loud crash. He opened his eyes and was greeted with the blurry outline of the ceiling. He lay there, half asleep, for a few more moments until another crash sounded. He shot out of his bed and looked around for the source of the crash.

Another crash sounded from below and Sasuke ran towards it. He dashed into the kitchen area where he found the Tsunami surrounded by several broken dishes surrounding her. Right in front of her was Kakashi holding the boy in a headlock with a kunai raised to his head.

"He attacked as soon as Kakashi released him." Sakura said as she appeared behind him, making Sasuke jump. Sasuke nodded as Kakashi began interrogating the boy.

"Why did you attack us?" Kakashi asked. Sasuke saw the kunai lower until it was touching the top of the boy's head.

"I won't answer any questions until you tell me where Zabuza is." Haku said defiantly. Kakashi pressed the kunai closer to the boys head,

"What makes you so sure we did anything to him? There are a lot of people other than us at the wave country." Kakashi asked.

"You are the only jonin ninja in the wave country that I know of." The boy said. "Zabuza is a high class ninja, no ordinary civilian could ever take him down." Kakashi then did something that surprised the entire room, he released the boy.

"Your intentions are admirable, but next time make sure you have the actual culprit before you attack someone." He said, stowing the kunai back in his pouch. Sasuke turned to Sakura, who's expression was even more surprised than his, looking for answers.

"How do I know you're not lying?" The boy asked. Sasuke saw Sakura tense up after this comment. "This could just be a trap to-" But he never finished the sentence. Sakura had walked up to him and slapped him across the face. All was silent for a moment, and then Sakura exploded.

"How much lower could you get? We take you in, nurse you back to health, give you food and all you say is that were setting a trap!" She yelled. The boy did nothing but raised a hand to the point where Sakura's hand connected. "Do you know what would have happened if you had met some other team across that road? You would have been left, or even killed! But we dragged your stupid unconscious body to this house and let you rest."

She raised a hand to the door that led to the room that Naruto was currently sleeping in. "Our teammate is still unconscious and thanks to you, now he had a hole in his chest!" Her hand lowered to the smashed glass that once was able to hold food that lay at Tsunami's feet. "That food was for you! Tsunami and I worked to make that because Kakashi-Sensei told us you were really a good person, but now I'm not so sure."

After that she walked away and up the stairs. The boy did nothing but stare at where Sakura had giving her speech, his hand still raised to his cheek. He slowly lowered his hand and turned to Kakashi.

"I apologize." He said. Then he turned to Tsunami and apologized to her as well. Then he bent down and started picking up the shards of glass. A loud bang echoed through the room as Tazuna entered.

"What's going on?" He asked, staggering a little.

"Nothing to worry about Tazuna." Kakashi answered, "Our guest just woke up."

"Did you beat him up?" Tazuna asked. Sasuke smirked as he saw the boy drop a few of the glass shards after he said this.

The rest of the day was uneventful. The newly dubbed Haku had tried many times to get inside Sakura's good books and failed every single try. It had become somewhat comical to the other residents of the house after the first few attempts. Sasuke had the feeling Sakura was starting to forgive him, he never saw Sakura as someone to hold a grudge.

Tsunami had seemed to take to Haku after his apology, when he helped pick up the broken dishes and remake the meal. Tazuna seemed suspicious of him at first, but at dinner that night Haku had managed to hold his own in an argument with Tazuna about wooden bridges and stone bridges. Tazuna seemed to take to the stone bridges, but Haku liked wooden ones better because they were more traditional. By the end of the day, Haku had managed to befriend everyone but Sasuke.

Kakashi had postponed their training until the next day in order to welcome their guest and get him used to things. So Sasuke found himself sitting in the same room he sat the previous night, with the same glass of tea. Sasuke heard the door beside him open and turned to find Haku, not Sakura.

"Hello," Haku said, putting on a warm smile. Sasuke raised his hand in greeting and took a large gulp from his tea. Haku sat down next to him and drank a much smaller amount of tea. "I'm going to leave tomorrow." He said plainly.

"Why?" Sasuke asked, pretending not to care. He heard Haku sigh,

"I have to find Zabuza." He said. "He is precious to me, and I have to protect him."

"You sound just like Naruto." Sasuke said. He knew he had heard Naruto make the same pronouncement a while back. Though it was only because his wallet had been stolen.

"The boy in there?" Haku's voice sounded slightly guilty as he looked at the door. Sasuke finished his tea and stood up,

"Well, feel free to leave whenever you want. Just wait until the morning, I don't want to deal with all the complaining."

* * *

Sasuke did not sleep well that night. No matter how hard he tried, he could not get to sleep. After a good two hours of tossing and turning Sasuke leaped up from his bed, resisting the urge to yell. It was if some divine being was forcing him to stay awake.

Sasuke threw open the door to his room and shuffled angrily down the stairs, hoping that getting something to drink would help him sleep. He reached the kitchen area and pulled out a small cup of juice left over from dinner. He began to walk back towards the stairs when he noticed the door to Naruto's room was hanging open.

He looked into it and felt his heart stop. Naruto was sitting up and staring at him, his eyes seemed to glow in the darkness of the room. Sasuke closed his eyes and opened them again, trying to convince himself he was under some juice-induced dream.

When he opened his eyes the red eyes in the room were gone, but so was Naruto. Sasuke turned around to rush back to his room but was impeded by Naruto standing right in his path. Sasuke jumped backwards, spilling the remains of the juice he was holding down his front.

"Staring at me while I'm sleeping Sasuke? That's called stalking." Naruto said with a cocky smirk on his face. Sasuke frowned, something about Naruto was off. The smile was different than what Sasuke was used to and the Naruto he knew was nowhere near this fast.

"Anything you need?" Naruto asked. Sasuke warily eyed the boy in front of him.

"No." Sasuke said. The smirk on Naruto's face was starting to get to him. It was as if Naruto had just succeeded in becoming hokage, and was desperately trying to hide it. Sasuke walked away from Naruto, but never took his eyes away from him. Just as he was about to reach the stairs he heard Naruto say,

"Sasuke, wait." Naruto grabbed onto Sasuke's arm and pulled. But instead of pulling Sasuke toward him, it ripped the skin from Sasuke's arm. Naruto retracted his arm and Sasuke noticed the claws on Naruto's bloodied hands. Naruto stared at his hand for a moment before waving Sasuke away.

"Goodnight." He said plainly and walked away. Sasuke, completely forgetting the fact his arm was now bleeding profusely, forgetting that it hurt like nothing he had ever felt, ran. There was no way that could ever be Naruto, the way he looked at the blood, the concealed joy within him leaked for a moment. Sasuke reached the stairs and was going straight to Kakashi.

Sasuke ran up the stairs as fast as he could, but as he was about to reach the top he slipped and his head crashed into the edge of the stairs. Sasuke felt the sensation of falling down a long tunnel, and fell unconscious.

* * *

A/N: This chapter I felt did a lot. We made friends with Haku, arrived at the wave, and Naruto is acting suspiciously. I want to ask you if I'm going to fast. I've seen stories with every chapter longer than this and there still on the bell test. So what do you think? should I try to slow down? I know exactly what I'm doing plot-wise though, everything will make sense when this is finished.

So please review and I will put the next chapter up as soon as I can.


	10. The Darkest Vow

A/N: Yup, another short chapter, and no I don't have an excuse for taking almost a month to type up 2,100 words except for a case of chronic laziness (Its highly contagious.) This chapter was actually supposed to go up to the battle on the bridge but I really felt like I needed to post something, so I decided to stop where I would have beaked earlier.

P.S. If you haven't been keeping up with the Naruto manga/anime to the point after Sasuke and Itachi's battle, there are some spoilers in the middle of the chapter so be prepared if you haven't gotten to that point.

There are no questions I need to answer this time, and I think thats a good thing, so your all understanding whats going on (I hope.)

So, enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 9: The Darkest Vow

Hiruzen breathed a sigh of relief as he raised his hand. He slammed the object down onto the paper in front of him and there was a small click. He lifted the object to reveal a paper with the leaf seal pressed onto its bottom. Hiruzen pushed the paper off to the side and rested his hands on his immaculately clean desk.

Hiruzen's eyes fell on the door on the opposite end of the room. He waited and waited but the door never opened. Hiruzen blinked in surprise, he actually had some free time. He got up from his chair and walked to the bookshelf on the side of the office. He looked threw the large collection of books to find anything that might be entertaining.

Hiruzen soon found his old pupils first book, _The Tale of the Gutsy Ninja_. He smiled as he pulled the old book off of the shelf. He flipped open the book and shuffled threw the pages. He sat down at his desk again as he began reading his favorite part. The main character, Naruto, was in battle with the main villain and was making a speech about the emotions of a ninja.

_"Ninja aren't just emotionless tools that you can dispose of whenever you feel like it! They can feel, they fight for what they believe in!" _Hiruzen loved that one line more than anything else in the book. Yes it was corny, but so many people thought the exact opposite it made him a little sad to think about it.

A gust of wind blew the pages of the book, pushing it closed. Hiruzen glanced behind him and at the open window. He got up and went to push the window closed, but as he was doing so he glanced down at the leaf village.

It was a bright day and the village seemed to glow in the sunlight. The colorful roofs stood out making the leaf look perfect. Hiruzen inhaled the fresh air from the outside and it calmed him even more. The streets were filled with civilians, doing their morning rounds or opening their shops.

Hiruzen glanced back into his stuffy little office and frowned. He finally had time to himself and he was stuck in the office. He sighed and created a shadow clone to sit at his desk and put a small genjutsu on himself that would blend him in with his surroundings. It was the hokage's duty to know his village right?

After making sure the clone would do its job right he jumped out of the window and landed on a roof directly under the hokage tower. Right after he jumped from the roof and onto the middle of a crowded street. As he walked he smiled at the people around him, no more favors or problems, he could see what his village was like when they thought he wasn't there.

He loved the people of the town but they would just get so annoying whenever they realized he was there. As he walked down the sandy streets of his village he came across Kurenai and her team. The Inuzuka boy seemed very put out about something, and the Hyuga heiress was attempting to console him, she was always so nice.

Then Hiruzen realized that Kurenai had been staring at him for quite some time. Hiruzen's smile faltered as he realized he was looking at Kurenai Yuhi, 'The Genjutsu Master.' So, Hiruzen gave her a small wave before continuing on.

That's when Kurenai started laughing, drawing the attention of every person on the street. Seeing an elite jonin burst out laughing in the middle of a crowded area has never been a good sign.

"Kurenai-sensei are you alright?" Hinata asked worriedly.

"Your hokage is a very powerful and lighthearted man, never forget that." She answered before continuing on. Her students exchanged confused looks before following her.

A small high-pitched whistling was brought to Hiruzen's attention. He sighed when he heard it, a sign that they had discovered his shadow clone. His short time walking in the village was over. He took one final sweeping look around before leaping away.

He dispelled the clone and genjutsu around himself as he stepped through the open window. But, where he was expecting his assistant or a ninja team he found a lone anbu. From what Hiruzen could see behind the anbu's dolphin mask he was slightly amused to find the most powerful person in the village climbing through a window.

"Yes." Hiruzen said, his tone suddenly serious. The anbu took out a scroll from his jacket and unfurled it. There was a small design on it that Sarutobi recognized at once. It was a seal that could only be broken by the blood of the current hokage. Hiruzen bit into his thumb, causing a small amount of blood to leak out.

The anbu held out the scroll and Hiruzen took it. He laid it on his desk and smeared the seal with his blood. There was a small puff of smoke and a small tan folder appeared. Hiruzen hadn't expected them to do the research so quickly.

"You are dismissed." He said to the anbu, who jumped away. As soon as Hiruzen knew the anbu had left he flipped open the folder and hurriedly shuffled through it's contents.

Inside was the picture of a tattoo they had found on the missing-nin Genta Manza. When he saw it he felt something dig at the back of his memory, like he had forgotten something very important. The tattoo was simple, the leaf crest drawn in red ink with a few extra swirls added to the middle. He pushed the picture aside and picked up the lone paper inside the file. It appeared to be a documentary of some sort.

_June 3rd,_

_ Today we finally discovered the answer to the mysterious symbol that was delivered to us many weeks ago. After searching through old records we found it, a document that gave us information that only the hokage and his most trusted advisors, namely me, knew. I had documented the information for further use or if we ever forgot details and my intuition served me well. Lord Hokage if your reading this, and I know you are, the tattoo was a rallying symbol for the Uchiha that wanted to rise up against the lea-"_

But Hiruzen stopped reading after that. He picked up the picture again and looked it over more closely. Then he found something that he hat not noticed before, the extra swirls weren't extra swirls at all. There was a rendition of the sharingan in the middle of the leaf crest.

Hiruzen flew through hand seals and placed his hand on the documentary, which immediately burst into flames. Hiruzen rushed to the inside of his desk and pulled open a small drawer. He shuffled through the large amount of files before coming upon the file for Genta.

He pulled the folder out and opened it, looking for Genta's ninja picture. When he found it his already large amount of confusion greatened. Genta had two dark brown eyes, not the complete black that were a trademark of the Uchiha clan.

Hiruzen placed the folder back into the drawer and sat back down. Did this mean that the Uchiha revolution had supporters that weren't Uchiha? He picked up the pipe that had been sitting on the middle of his desk and placed it in his mouth. He had always been told that smoking was bad for your lungs, but he was a kage and no wooden pipe was going to kill him off.

As he prepared the fire jutsu that would destroy the picture of the tattoo he remembered exactly why Genta was dead. He picked up the picture and stowed it inside the copy of _The Tale of the Gutsy Ninja _that still lay open at his desk. He would have to warn Kakashi what exactly was targeting his students.

* * *

The first thing Naruto noticed when he woke up was that he was really hungry. Acting on pure instinct he pushed a fluffy piece of fabric off of his body and stood up. He maneuvered himself to the kitchen of the house that he now recognized as Tazuna's.

As he regained full control of his sight, he noticed Kakashi, Tsunami, and Sakura sitting at a large rectangular table.

"So your finally awake Naruto." Kakashi said, not looking away from his book. Naruto merely raised his hand in greeting as he made his way to the cabinets, ignoring the other various renditions of "Good morning" that came his way. He opened the cabinets and started debating on what would satisfy his gnawing hunger.

"I think toast would be a good idea." Spoke a voice behind him.

"Yeah, yeah sensei." Naruto said, his tired mind dubbing the deep voice to be Kakashi's. He prepared three slices, having burnet the first one, and walked the two edible slices of toast to the table. He placed the toast in front of Kakashi and sat himself down across from him.

"Next time get it yourself." He bit into his slice and swallowed, allowing himself freedom from his hunger. Naruto quickly finished the last bit of toast and was about to go get some more when he noticed another piece right in front of him.

Naruto glanced over to Kakashi and found that it was his piece. Naruto pushed the toast back to him, a little annoyed that he wasn't going to eat it. Kakashi looked over the book he was reading and stared at the food. He then pushed it towards Naruto.

"Look, if your going to have me make you food," Said Naruto, pushing the toast towards Kakashi again. "At least eat it." Kakashi broke his vision away from the book again,

"I never told you to make anything." He said pushing the toast back to Naruto. Naruto sighed and picked up the toast, giving the entire table a clear view of it.

"All right, who asked me to make this and isn't taking it? Whoever it is better take it soon or I'll eat it." When he received no answer, he rolled his eyes, "Your loss."

"You really are an idiot." Spoke the same voice that Naruto had heard in the kitchen. Naruto paused halfway through his toast and stood up.

"Alright, who was that?" Naruto said, glaring at the entire table. His question was never answered as another voice spoke,

"Who's the kid?" Naruto recognized the voice to be Inari's and turned towards him.

"I'm older than you brat." Inari recoiled under Naruto's glare but quickly regained his composure. Tsunami got up from her chair and walked over to Inari.

"Naruto this is Inari." After being introduced Inari stared coldly at Naruto, it was a look Naruto hadn't seen on Inari for a long time. Pushing thoughts of the mysterious voice into the back of his head for now, Naruto got up and walked over to Inari.

Naruto made a show of examining Inari head to foot, poking him during random times just to annoy him. After a good minute of silence Naruto stood in front of Inari again with his arms crossed.

"My names Naruto Uzumaki, but you can just call me future hero of the wave country." Naruto what Inari's reaction would be perfectly well, but that's why he did it. It's what he did last time... right? As he predicted Inari's expression darkened,

"Give up." He said.

"No." Naruto responded, his bright smile never faltering.

"You can't beat Gato."

"Says who, I'm a ninja."

"You'll die just like everyone else that opposes him!" Inari was yelling now. Naruto dropped his smile and crossed his arms, using his height to look intimidating he said,

"Listen kid, I'm going to be the hokage of the leaf village one day and there's nothing that's going to kill me off before I do." Without giving any time for Inari to argue, Naruto turned and walked to the stairs.

"You will die! All of you will die! No one can stand up to Gato!" Inari shouted, his yell echoing throughout the entire house. Naruto stopped and a dark look suddenly came over his face. He whipped around and walked to Inari. Naruto took out a kunai with his left hand and clapped his right over his heart.

"I, Naruto Uzumaki, vow that before I leave the wave, I will have put this kunai into Gato's head."

Nobody moved after that. The entire room was silent, because Naruto Uzumaki, the boy that never broke a promise, had just vowed to kill.


	11. Tic Tic Boom

Chapter 10: Tic Tic Boom

"Sasuke." He heard the voice call to him, but it was so far away.

"Sasuke." The voice was closer now, and it sounded annoyed? What had he done to offend the voice?

"Come on Sasuke!" The voice was very close now, it was high pitched and pleading. Suddenly he felt annoyance and resentment towards the voice. Why was that?

"God damnit Sasuke, wake up!" Sasuke felt something hard come in contact with his stomach. It collided with such a force that Sasuke shot upward, or as far as he could with something planted on his chest. His eyes snapped open and colors flashed before his eyes, before settling on a deep red.

Then Sasuke felt something soft press against his lips. Then the red shot away from him, reveling themselves to be the eyes of Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto had pressed himself against the opposite wall but Sasuke couldn't understand why.

Then the full realization of what had just happened fell on both of them. Naruto started yelling at the top of his lungs, screaming every possible swear that he could think of. He didn't care that there was a potentially influential child one floor below them, he didn't care that the entire house could hear him, Sasuke Uchiha had just taken his first kiss.

But Sasuke wasn't too pleased about it either. So Sasuke did the only thing that seemed sensible at the moment besides screaming his head off like Naruto. He got up, walked into the bathroom and brushed his teeth for a solid five minutes.

Deciding that he had gotten the taste out of his mouth, Sasuke walked out of the bathroom.

"-thought I had avoided that." He heard Naruto grumble from the opposite end of the room. The next moment he had Naruto pinned up against the wall by his collar.

"It never leaves the room." Sasuke growled, raising Naruto higher.

"Do you honestly think I'd go bragging about this? Your the one who kissed me anyway." Naruto finished quietly, but Sasuke still heard.

"You punched me in the stomach while I was asleep!"

"I kicked you!"

"What kind of comeback is that?" Sasuke said. Deciding to end the argument with that he unceremoniously dropped Naruto on the floor. Sasuke gave Naruto one final glare before turning around and walking towards the door.

"Just what kind of sick and twisted dreams were you having last night that would make you want to kiss me?" Naruto said, taking one last swing at Sasuke's pride as he picked himself up off of the ground.

Sasuke stopped, memories flashing before his eyes. He suddenly remembered the devilish smile of Naruto's, his bloodlust. He remembered everything.

Sasuke glanced to his wrist, expecting to see blood pouring from it at any moment, but all he saw was his normal pale skin. Sasuke checked his other arm, but it was as unharmed as his other.

Sasuke checked his shirt, which he had distinctly remembered spilling juice on the night before, but found it dry and clean. All that happened the night before, it couldn't have been a dream, could it?

Sasuke ran out of his room and up to the foot of the staircase. He slowly walked down it, examining each and every inch of every step. But he found no blood, no indents from his fall. He checked his forehead as he reached the bottom of the stairs and found no bump or bruise.

Sasuke simply stood there for what felt like hours, but could have been seconds, and then he started to laugh. Really, a dream about Naruto of all people attacking him, it would have been more convincing if it was Sakura.

Sasuke shook his head as he walked on, trying to dispel the dream from his head. But as much as he tried he could not, it had looked so real.

"Good morning Sasuke!" A female voice chirped. His vision was obscured by a blur of pink has Sakura hugged him. Sasuke pushed her away and attempted to walk by her but was unsuccessful.

"You slept really late today, I was worried Kakashi was going to have to postpone our training for another day." That comment threw Sasuke for a loop. Sakura was worried about training more than him? Sasuke gently pushed by her and walked up to the large rectangular table in the center of the kitchen.

Kakashi sat in the middle, reading one of his books with an orange cover. Sasuke had never figured out exactly what they were about, but judging by the occasional giggle that Kakashi would give out when reading the books he guessed that it was not for minors.

Haku sat next to Kakashi, but he looked slightly shaken. Sasuke smirked as he realized Kakashi had probably given Haku a continuation of Sakura's 'talk' on hospitality when he caught Haku trying to leave.

Then he noticed the three people that owned the house they were currently staying in. Tsunami had a very uncomfortable expression on her face as she glance back and forth between Kakashi and Tazuna. Inari and Tazuna had the same expression on their faces and seemed to be deep in thought. What exactly had happened before he woke up?

A loud yawn broke Sasuke from his thoughts. He turned to see Naruto, fully dressed in his orange outfit, walking down the stairs.

"Got Sasuke up..." He said solemnly. Then he caught sight of Haku and jumped back several feet. "What's she doing here!" He yelled. Kakashi merely sighed and lightly elbowed Haku, who nodded.

He got out of his chair and walked up to Naruto and bowed to him. Naruto's expression immediately changed to confused.

"I apologize for my behavior when we first met, I thought you were ninja of much sinister intentions," Haku spoke. "I have joined your group temporarily to search for my master." Naruto broke out into nervous laughter after he said this, waving his hands in front of his face.

"Alright I understand, but please stop bowing its making me really uncomfortable." Haku immediately straightened up and nodded. Naruto walked over to Kakashi and opened his mouth to say something to him but Haku spoke before he could.

"And by the way, I'm a boy." Naruto froze with his mouth half open and stared at Haku.

"Wow," Naruto said while blinking rapidly. "Your prettier than Sakura..." Right after he said that the temperature seemed to drop ten degrease.

Suddenly a fist made contact with Naruto's face and sent him flying across the room. Sakura stepped over him with a murderous look in her eyes,

"I dare you to say that again you idiot." She said raising a fist.

"D-did I say that out loud? Come on Sakura you know your the only one for me" Sakura responded by swiftly kicking Naruto in the face. She raised her head and walked away from him.

Suddenly there was a snort of laughter coming from the table. Sasuke turned and saw Inari holding his hands over his mouth in a failing attempt to stop laughing. But soon it proved to be too much for the little boy and he howled with laughter.

Tsunami and Tazuna looked at the boy with surprise evident in their faces, which soon turned into happy smiles. Sasuke turned back to Naruto who was still lying on the floor with his head resting against the wall. Sasuke noticed the bruise already starting to form on his cheek, but he also saw a small smile on his lips.

Sasuke turned back to the laughing Inari, then back to Naruto. He hadn't said those things intentionally... had he? Suddenly Naruto went pale and jumped up and ran from the room.

* * *

Naruto slammed the door to the bathroom shut and locked it. He felt his vision blur and he leaned against the wall. Right after he collapsed.

When Naruto picked himself up he suddenly felt his feet submerge in water. He glanced down at the murky water and back up at the lightly illuminated room. Soon a large cage made of bars going from the floor to the ceiling came into sight. Naruto stared at the cage until large red eyes appeared on the other side.

"Alright fox, what do you want this time?" Naruto asked. But the nine tails didn't respond. He lowered his gaze and let out a low growl. Naruto raised an eyebrow and asked again, trying to get a answer out of the fox. Finally he answered,

"**The seal containing me in your body is weakening.**" He answered solemnly.

"Shouldn't that be a good thing for you? I mean, why are you telling me. If the seal really is weakening wouldn't that mean that you break free, I die, and you get your body back in a few weeks?" Naruto questioned.

"**Not this time... The seal has been tampered with, almost as if its been turned into a bomb set to blow after a certain time, taking us both with it.**"

"So I've been turned into a bomb!" Shouted Naruto. But the nine tail's glare only intensified after this statement.

"**Not in the literal sense you fool. Its quite simple, after a set period of time you and I will die. There is also the possibility of another person who holds the figurative 'trigger'. That person will be able to kill us whenever it tickles their fancy.**" The fox spat, some of it's old fire coming back.

''Was it Madara?" Naruto asked.

"**No**." The nine tails said. "**I would recognize that despicable vermin's chakra anywhere, this is not his work.**" Naruto frowned,

"Great, so now I have a psychotic, all-powerful Uchiha and a seal ninja trying to kill me." Naruto said. "So is there any way we could stop it? Could I use sage mode and find where it came from or something?" The nine tails smirked, causing his bright white teeth to show.

"**No, that won't work. But there is always the possibility of you releasing me**." The fox said, eying the slip of paper on the center of his cage. "**With me free we would never have to worry about this seal again.**"

"I think you know by now that I will never willingly set you free, so do me a favor and get serious." Naruto said shaking his head.

"**You've grown a backbone, brat**." The nine tails said.

"How long do we have?" Naruto blurted out. After he heard the question the fox's eyes turned solemn.

"**To be truthful, I have no idea. But, it's evident this has been going on for quite a while. By now I could give you at least three tails of my chakra even without your consent.**" Naruto gritted his teeth in frustration,

"So when the seal weakens enough so that you can escape, we die?" Naruto threw his fist into the wall next to him in frustration. There was a loud crack as rubble shot from the wall and fell into the water.

"**This is worse then I thought...**" the nine tails said. But Naruto was preoccupied by what he found behind the wall he just broke. There was a black liquid that was moving like it had a current. He reached out to touch the black thing, it looked a lot like Sai's ink.

"**Stop you fool!**" the nine tails roared. "**Do you want to damage the seal even more!**" Naruto immediately pulled his hand away from the small crack and jumped back into the middle of the room for good measure.

"What was that!" Naruto yelled at the nine tails.

"**Do not forget where we are, brat. What you almost touched was the seal itself. If you even grazed that you could instantly break the seal. You truly are an idiot.**" That comment struck a cord within Naruto.

"So that voice earlier today was you?" Naruto asked, remembering the fox say the same thing.

"**Yes it was. That was me trying to contact you before this, but I stopped when you started yelling at your friends, I didn't want to make a scene.**" Naruto nodded,

"So there's no way we can stop this, or... delay it in any way?" he asked. The nine tail's eyes narrowed and he let out a low growl, which Naruto learnt to mean he was thinking.

"**Not that I know of. But as for delaying it, if you stop using my chakra that may give us more time to think.**" Naruto's eyes narrowed,

"So how long have I been able to stop your chakra?" Naruto asked, angry that he hadn't been warned that his wounds had been healed enough so that he could revert back to his original appearance.

"**About a week.**" The nine tails said nonchalantly. Naruto sighed and started to push out of the fox's mindscape. "**I'm not going to bring you in here anymore, that would make all our efforts useless. But I will be using the other method if I need to talk to you.**" Naruto nodded as the nine tails disappeared from sight.

Suddenly Naruto was back inside Tazuna's bathroom. He groaned and picked himself up, noticing right away how heavy he felt. He swore silently as he realized he would probably have to triple his normal training for a while before he was back in shape.

When Naruto arrived back in the kitchen he saw Kakashi standing if front of Sasuke and Sakura with his hands at his hips. He turned and smiled when he saw Naruto, but his expression soon changed to a confused one as he looked Naruto over. Realizing what Kakashi was staring at Naruto smiled triumphantly,

"Figured out how to turn it off." Kakashi nodded before turning back to Sasuke and Sakura.

"Alright now that Naruto's finally ready we can split up. Sasuke I want you to go with Naruto to the woods and teach him the tree climbing exercise while Sakura and I go help with the bridge. Any questions?" They both shook their heads.

"Sensei" Naruto said. "How have you learned a new exercise, I've only been out for a day or so." Kakashi stared at him for a moment before sighing,

"You've been asleep for three days Naruto." Kakashi said flatly. Naruto's eyes widened, he only had three days until the bridge was attacked?

After this revelation he grabbed Sasuke by the wrist and dragged him out of the house screaming," How come you didn't wake me up!"

* * *

A/N: So for the beginning of the chapter I just wanted to say that this is not, nor will it ever be a yaoi fic. The scene was put there for comedic elements only.


	12. Through the Eyes of a Medic

Chapter 11: Through the Eyes of a Medic

"Again," Sasuke said, pride evident in his voice as he stood over the exhausted form of Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto glared up at Sasuke as he raised himself off of the ground. After standing still for a few moments, Naruto screamed and ran at the tree directly in front of him.

He made it halfway up before intentionally overloading the chakra in his feet, making him shoot of the tree. He collided with the ground a second later and slid until he stopped and found himself staring up at the superior looking Sasuke. Then there was a loud and sickening _crack _that came from the tree as it started to fall towards them.

Sasuke and Naruto both dived in different directions as the tree came toppling down, and landed with a loud crash. When the dust cleared Naruto picked himself up from the ground, only to receive another glare from Sasuke.

"That was the fifth one," He said. "By the time you even get close to the top of a tree the entire forest will be torn down." Naruto glared at him, but didn't say anything because Sasuke was probably right.

"I'll show you!" Naruto yelled. Then he started focusing chakra to his feet. All he needed to do was _almost _make it to the top. Naruto let out another battle cry and ran at the tree left of the collapsed one. Once he reached it he ran up, but didn't stop where he did on the last tree. Once Naruto reached a few feet from the last branch he slashed the tree with the kunai in his hand and gracefully jumped down onto the fallen tree to face Sasuke.

Maybe letting his pride control his actions wasn't such a good idea. He probably shouldn't have shown some hidden level of skill. But Naruto knew one thing for sure; the look of astonishment on Sasuke's face would be worth any consequences in the future.

"Ha!" Naruto said, shoving his face into Sasuke's. "Betcha can't do that!" Sasuke grimaced at Naruto's sudden proximity and shoved him away, sending him toppling off the remnants of their previous tree. Before another word could be said, Sasuke was off running at the tree Naruto had just scaled.

Naruto watched as Sasuke scaled the tree, he started out strong enough, but as he progressed he started to slip until he fell halfway up. To Naruto it was painfully obvious what Sasuke was doing wrong. As Sasuke was climbing the tree he would slowly take chakra out of his feet, Naruto guessed it was to conserve as much as possible.

Naruto sighed and walked over to Sasuke, who was getting ready for another go at the tree,

"Sasuke, just listen to me this once, ok?"

* * *

Sakura smirked at the looks of utter astonishment on the faces of the other men working on the bridge. Just to add insult to injury, Sakura took yet another bag of concrete off of the ground and added it to the group thrown over her shoulder, bringing the grand total to six.

Smirking the entire way, she carried the bags over to the edge of the bridge where others were stacked and casually threw them off her shoulder. Sakura wiped the sweat off her forehead and glanced around the bridge. They had been working non-stop the entire day and it had definitely paid off. The bridge was at least half a mile longer than it was when they started, and Sakura could see the pillars sticking out of the water ahead that would support more.

"Sakura" A voice spoke from behind her. Sakura turned around and saw Kakashi, one hand raised in a lazy greeting and the other holding a small orange book up to his face. Sakura jogged to her teacher,

"Yes?" She asked.

"Were leaving early for today. Tazuna needs to run some errands but is nervous to go out alone, and with good reason." Sakura sighed, she really just wanted to finish the bridge and go back to her home. This trip had made her ten times more paranoid than any ninja her age should be. But she nodded all the same, and after collecting Tazuna they started their walk to the Wave's main village.

It was Sakura's first time in this part of the Wave, so it was no surprise that she would want to see everything about the main part of an entire _country_! But what she found made her blood boil.

When they first arrived the first buildings they saw had holes the size of a fully-grown man, and were extremely worn down. The street was sand, nothing more and nothing less. There were many people off to the sides of the town, resting against buildings, buying food from vendors, but none of them wore the happy expressions of the members of the leaf.

They continued down the sandy road and with every step Sakura's hatred for Gato grew. She had never known that one man could have the power to ruin so many lives. Her fists were clenched at her sides and she gritted her teeth, she wanted to hit something, _now_.

Suddenly there was a slight tugging at the pink dress she was wearing. Resisting the urge to jump ten feet into the air and make a fool out of herself in front of all the people, she took a calming breath and turned around.

There was a boy, no older than five standing behind her. When he saw that Sakura had turned around he held out his small hands. Sakura felt her heart shatter into a thousand tiny pieces right then and there. She stayed rooted to the spot, amazed that someone so small would have to beg for money.

Sakura noticed that the boy had started to draw back, and then she realized that it had probably looked like she was affronted. She quickly reached back to her pouch, drew out her wallet and dropped a rather generous amount of Ryo into the boy's hands.

The boys eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets when he saw the money. His smile grew so large that it looked like his mouth would be as wide as his head soon, and ran. Sakura watched him go up to a man with a bandaged leg resting his head against the wall of what appeared to be an inn. He blinked a few times when the boy showed him the money, but soon turned to Sakura and gave her a slight nod, a small smile gracing his lips.

"You know, that was nice and all, but I was kind of planning on using your money to buy the food..." Tazuna spoke up behind her. Sakura sighed,

"Just go."

"Fine, fine." he said waving a hand in a shooing gesture. They continued along the road until they came across a building that looked so out of place Sakura had to rub her eyes before accepting its existence.

Where all the other buildings were tall, at least two stories high. This building was short, maybe half the size of most of the others, and it was still sturdy... and black. Sakura couldn't find a hole bigger then a rat anywhere on the building.

"Were here." Tazuna said as he stepped into the shop. They were greeted to the sight of a middle-aged man standing on the opposite end of a counter. The man had short dirty blonde hair and had a very rough expression on his face. But the minute Tazuna walked in his gruff expression changed into one of pure disbelief.

"Tazuna?" The man asked tentatively. When Tazuna nodded the man jumped over his counter and put on a large grin. "Man, I thought you were dead! Are you still working on the bridge?" He asked, his voice lowering to a whisper. When Tazuna nodded, his smile grew bigger. The man swung a arm around Tazuna's neck and shoved his fist into the air,

"Ha! Ya hear that Gato! Tazuna's back and that bridge is gunna finish! Just you wait you son of a-" But Tazuna slapped a hand across his mouth.

"Senju!" He said in a angry whisper. "Just run up to Gato and tell him yourself why don't you!" But Senju's smile did not falter.

"Right, right. So whacha' need?" He asked walking up to the small counter. Sakura then noticed that the counter was almost run dry. Was anything in stock? She had thought this was a poor country.

"That explains all the people I've been havin' lately. You've been paying em haven't you? But where'd you get the money?" At that point Kakashi chose to slowly raise his hand, drawing Senju's attention. He glanced at the headband strewn across his eye and paused before continuing.

"Your ninja arn't cha?" He said as if he was discovering the answer to an impossible mystery. "So that's how Tazuna came back! You protected him and now your payin' for him? Tazuna you moocher! Here," Senju walked over to the counter and started pulling a number of fish, vegitables, and fruit from it and threw it to Kakashi, who expertly caught them all.

"That's for all you've done! But don't expect it again ya hear? Now get back to work on that bridge, but tell me when it's done, I want to see Gato's face. Ha! That'll be a sight!"

And they found themselves on the dirt path again, with a very bemused Kakashi holding all the food. Kakashi turned to Tazuna who looked like what just happened was an everyday occurrence and, without any warning, dumped the pile into his hands.

Taking out his orange book he motioned for Sakura to follow him as he jumped on top of the houses and out of sight. Sakura could hear Tazuna's colorful swear words even from outside of the village.

* * *

SLAM!

Sakura jumped as she heard the loud bang coming from the entrance to the house. She dashed to the source of the sound to find a severely cut and bruised Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto had a bright smile on his face while Sasuke looked extremely full of himself but also a bit annoyed at the fact that he had ended up supporting Naruto.

"Did it!" Naruto said happily, giving her a peace sign. Sasuke sighed,

"You want to let go of me now?" He asked, gesturing to Naruto's arm draped across his shoulder.

"But I'm hungry!" Naruto whined. "I don't think I could move a single inch!" In response Sasuke threw Naruto on the ground.

"Sleep on the floor then." He said. Sasuke walked up the staircase next to them, muttering about a shower.

"Got anything to eat? I wasn't joking about being hungry." Naruto said, picking himself off of the floor.

"Go make something yourself." Sakura said. Why should she do anything for him?

"Fine..." Naruto sighed, before walking into the kitchen and yelling, "Tazuna! Got anything to eat?" Sakura shook her head at her friend's antics.

"Hello" Haku spoke from behind her. She turned to him and smiled before noticing a odd sent coming off of him.

"Hey Haku... umm, do you have any other cloths besides those?" She said, crinkling her nose in disgust. When Haku looked at her questioningly she continued nervously, "It's just I haven't seen you in anything else..."

"This is the only clothing I brought to my mission-" Haku started before suddenly going quiet, and Sakura knew why.

"Mission?" She repeated.

"Trip!" Haku answered a little too quickly for Sakura's liking. "I meant trip, not mission, sorry." He gave a nervous chuckle before rushing off.

That night Sakura found herself walking up the long set of stairs. She let out a yawn before continuing to her room. She really had to change out of the dress she was wearing, it was starting to smell. As she passed Naruto's new room that he had opted to change to when he discovered that he would be sharing with Haku if he didn't. Sakura really couldn't blame him, Haku did put a senbon in his chest.

But she noticed a cool breeze coming from Naruto's slightly open door. She blinked before stepping towards it, his room couldn't be that cooler than the rest of the house because the lights were off. Could it? Sakura lightly pushed open the door and looked in the room.

It was empty.

Sakura opened the door wide and stepped in it. The mattress in his room hadn't been touched and when she looked around, she noticed the open window on the wall.

Without a second thought she crawled out of the window herself and jumped into the thicket of trees in front of her.

After continuing forward for what had to be at least a half hour Sakura was about to give up when she heard a yell. Not a yell of surprise or fear but a battle cry, and it was Naruto's.

What if Naruto was being attacked! She was about to turn and get Kakashi, but her intuition told her not too. Naruto could already be dead by the time she and Kakashi got there.

Gritting her teeth she jumped straight to the yells. Putting all her strength into her legs she jumped and finally arrived at a small clearing. As she was about to jump straight into it, there was a bright flash of light, a high-pitched screech and she was blown back into the trees.

When her vision finally cleared she was staring at the clearing, or what was left of it. The center of the clearing was now a massive crater, Sakura stared at it, not knowing what had just happened when a kunai suddenly embedded itself into the tree right behind her, missing by inches.

She yelled in surprise and fell off of the branch she was standing on. She fell forward and into the edge of the clearing that had not been affected by the explosion. She groaned and sat up to come face to face with Naruto.

"Sakura?" He asked. Sakura was speechless, her mouth opened then closed over and over again as she looked at the crater then her teammate.

"Naruto?" She finally squeaked out. Naruto looked at the crater then to her before his expression became panicked.

"I can explain!" He yelled. "I-I Ummmm... I was practicing a new technique but lost control and then it exploded!"

"What kind of technique were you practicing!" Sakura yelled. Later, when she looked back on this moment, she would question why she believed him, but in her stunned state she was having trouble creating coherent thought.

"Uhhh..." Naruto said, the panicked expression still on his face. "Exploding shadow clones?" It wasn't a statement, it was a question, but Sakura merely nodded, failing to come up with any other way that Naruto could have possibly created something so powerful.

"S-so, whatcha' doing?" Naruto asked as if he hadn't almost killed himself with a failed technique.

"What am I doing?" Sakura repeated. "I noticed your open window and thought you had been kidnapped or something Naruto!" She said, looking back at the crater. But she didn't feel amazement or anger when she saw it, instead she felt like something heavy had settled in her stomach.

"Exploding shadow clones huh?" Sakura said and Naruto nodded. "Looks pretty powerful." Naruto could obviously detect the drop in her mood,

"Something wrong?" He asked. Sakura herself didn't know, but every time she looked at that crater the feeling in her stomach increased. After a long pause, she figured it out.

"So I guess your stronger then me now." Sakura said.

"Oh come on, I don't think one technique will really make a difference..." But he trailed off at the end, coming to the same conclusion she did.

"I'm pretty darn useless aren't I? I didn't do a thing against the demon brothers, and even with Haku, all I did was sit and watch..." She said. Sakura didn't know why she was telling _Naruto _of all people but, somehow she just felt she should do it.

Then Naruto was nose to nose with her and stayed like that. Then he started to slowly walk around her, examining everything he could see.

After a good minute of circling, Naruto stopped right in front of her and smiled.

"What?" Sakura asked. Naruto simply smiled and pointed at her.

"You should become a medic." He said it so plainly and simple that it took Sakura some time to process what he said. When it did, she cocked her head to the side,

"Huh?" Was the unintelligent response.

"Medics are the healers on the team, but they also have the strongest punch on the team. Sounds familiar right? I mean, you've already got one hell of a punch up your sleeve right now! How about making it better?" Sakura's confusion only grew, a healer but the heaviest hitter? Seeing her confusion Naruto continued,

"Have you ever heard of Tsunade?" Sakura nodded slowly, Tsunade was one of the legendary sanin, but last Sakura heard she had become a drunk and a gambler. Not someone she exactly admired. "Tsunade is a sanin and she's a medic, and her punch is legendary!" Naruto's eyes seemed to brighten with every word he said. Sakura never knew that Naruto was a fan of Tsunade.

"I picked up this technique in the library, I could never do it with my chakra control but I bet you could!" Sakura felt overwhelmed, since when had Naruto been so knowledgeable? "All you do is focus all of your chakra into your fist then punch something while releasing the chakra out of your fist all at once, go on try it!"

Naruto said it like it was the simplest thing in the world, but nonetheless she walked up to the tree in front of her. She started to focus chakra into her hand, which was the easy part, probably easer then focusing chakra into her feet. Sakura raised her fist and punched while releasing the chakra.

When Sakura pulled her fist back she saw a small dent in the tree. It was only slightly more powerful then her normal punch. She was slightly disappointed that it hadn't been stronger, but she had mastered it in one try so it was a success.

"You released the chakra too early." Naruto spoke next to her.

"But it worked! My punch is stronger!" Sakura said, surprised.

"If it had worked then that tree wouldn't still be standing." Naruto replied.

Sakura sighed and prepared to try once more, but then the chakra exhaustion hit her. She staggered back before righting herself,

"Looks like you used too much chakra." Naruto said. "That makes two of us. Come on, we'll do this again tomorrow if you want to. Right now I just want to sleep." Sakura nodded. She and Naruto decided to walk back, due to their exhausted states.

"You won't tell will you?" Naruto spoke after a long silence. Sakura just stared at him. She had been expecting something more along the lines of "With my awesome new badass technique I'll become hokage for sure!" or "Ha! Sasuke, next time we fight your idiot butt is gunna get fried!" but now he was asking her to keep something like _that _quiet!

"Why? I would think you would want to go and brag to Sasuke the minute we get back." Sakura replied. Naruto stayed silent for a second then quickly said,

"That's just it! I want to take Sasuke by surprise! Imagine his face!" He started to laugh, and Sakura couldn't help but smile. Besides the fact that she felt that she could collapse at any moment, this felt nice.

The constant fear Sakura had been feeling was quickly draining out of her and soon she was laughing at Naruto's antics and proclamations on exactly how he would defeat Sasuke. Which is when she stepped in, saying that Sasuke would still be able to beat him. Naruto looked at her with a false mortified expression on his face and went on ranting on how he would absolutely beat Sasuke.

Soon they arrived at Tazuna's and entered, Sakura's mood significantly brighter. But they saw something they did not expect. Kakashi and Tazuna were seated at the large wooden table in a heated discussion while Sasuke leaned against the nearest wall, listening intently.

When they heard the door close, Kakashi and Tazuna turned to them but Sasuke turned away.

"What's going on?" Naruto asked. Sakura however did not need an answer. She had been looking around, analyzing, the minute she saw the expressions everyone was wearing. Finally she came to a conclusion.

"Kakashi-sensei," She started. Sakura didn't know if she was wrong, after all he could be just sleeping in his room, but something in her gut told her he wasn't.

"Where's Haku?"


	13. The Seal's True Purpose

Chapter 12: The Seal's True Purpose

_I will never use the Rasenshurikan within a ten-mile radius of my friends ever again._ Naruto thought to himself as he walked side by side with Sakura on their way back. It was a test, a test! He had thought everyone was asleep so he jumped out his window and traveled what had to be a thirty minute walk away and found a large circular field that would be great for sparring with his shadow clones.

Then, as he looked back on this moment he realized how stupid he was, he had tried to use the Rasenshurikan to figure out if he had enough chakra to use it yet, and the thing blew up in his face! Then Sakura of all people appeared out of thin air, face down on the ground.

Naruto looked at Sakura who was walking next to him with a small frown on her face.

"You won't tell anyone, will you?" He asked. He needed to make sure she wouldn't tell anyone; he really didn't need anyone asking questions. Sakura turned to him, a look of surprise on her face.

"Why? I would think you would want to go and brag to Sasuke the minute we get back." She asked. Naruto paused, and then realized this was probably really out of character for him, he needed to think of something...

"That's just it! I want to take Sasuke by surprise! Imagine his face!" Naruto gave a forced laugh, praying that Sakura would believe him. Apparently someone up there was watching out for him, as Sakura's suspicious face relaxed.

As they continued talking Naruto couldn't help but notice who all their conversations seemed to focus on, Sasuke. His smile faltered a little as she continued on about him. Naruto sighed and turned away, internally berating himself for getting depressed over a childhood crush.

He knew that if he found a way to keep Sasuke around, which he would, Sakura and Sasuke would most likely... Naruto couldn't finish that thought, but he couldn't stop the images flowing in his mind. When he first brought Tsunade back to the leaf... it took an excessive amount of willpower not to slap himself, he needed a distraction.

Suddenly the front of Tazuna's house came into view and with a sigh of relief he rushed up to it and opened the door. When Naruto stepped in however, he did not get the relief he sought. Kakashi and Tazuna were seated at the long rectangular table and talking quietly. Tsunami and Inari were standing behind them and looking nervous. Sasuke was leaning against the wall right behind Kakashi, his head turned away from all of them.

They all turned towards Naruto and Sakura when the door behind them closed loudly. Naruto looked at Sakura, who's eyes had suddenly gone analytical.

"Kakashi-sensei..." She started out slowly, looking around the room. "Where's Haku?" Naruto's eyes widened as he looked around the small house, Haku was indeed absent. Kakashi sighed and stood up,

"Haku is gone, he slipped out from right out of our noses." Kakashi paused, debating weather to tell them his theory. "He might have other reasons, but there's a high probability Haku was a spy for Zabuza all along." Kakashi said, running a hand through his silver hair. He sat back down, "How could I not see it?" he muttered under his breath.

"B-but, that's impossible, Haku a spy?" Naruto asked. There was no way that the Haku he knew would do that... would he? Naruto's brain went into overdrive, thinking of different possibilities. Haku was incredibly loyal to Zabuza, but why would Zabuza want to spy on them, that is if Haku was a spy at all. If Haku wasn't a spy, then what happened to Zabuza?

"He wanted to leave." Sasuke said, breaking away from the staring contest he had been having with the window beside him. His onyx eyes bore into Naruto, daring him to ask him how he knew.

He took the bait.

"What do you mean, he wanted to leave!" Naruto yelled.

"He told me." Sasuke said in a tone that would suggest he was giving Naruto the weather report.

"You... knew?" Naruto asked weakly. Sasuke didn't care that Haku left? Memories of another friend leaving, images of his retreating back forced themselves into Naruto's mind.

_Bump_

Suddenly Naruto's vision blurred, everything but Sasuke became irreverent blotches of color.

_Bump_

The sound of a heartbeat filled his ears; slowly Sasuke's face grew closer.

_Bump_

Everything was a blurred mess. Naruto's mind was on the verge of shutting down.

_Bump_

Suddenly Naruto's eyes focused, he saw Sasuke, his face contorted in fear.

_Bump_

His mouth shaped into a smile.

_Kill_

Suddenly something grabbed his wrist, his vision returned to normal, the heartbeat was gone and he realized where he was. He had Sasuke pinned up against a wall and his feet were stuck to it beside Sasuke. His nails had morphed into claws and Kakashi had his wrist in his hand, holding Naruto back from clawing Sasuke.

Naruto's eyes widened in fear and he jumped off of the wall. Sakura was staring at him and had backed away several feet, Tsunami had covered Inari's eyes with her hands and was looking at him in shock. Tazuna shook his head and turned his eyes to the table. Sasuke however, was not holding his neck or gasping for breath, he was clutching his wrist.

Naruto backed away, looking at all of them, before he turned and ran out of the door. He jumped into the trees and yelled mentally,

_Fox! What was that! _he thought angrily. Suddenly the Nine Tail's voice filled his head.

**I don't know... **

_That doesn't help me! _Naruto shouted mentally. _I thought I wasn't supposed to use your chakra, so why did you suddenly force some into me!_

**That wasn't me.**

_Than who the hell was it!_

**Just be quiet you pathetic insect! **The Nine Tail's voice boomed. Naruto stopped jumping trees and waited.

_Well? _He asked.

**While this incident may be a problem in the future, for now it could be a blessing.**

_A blessing! What do yo-_

**Let me finish brat. This has given me information about our seal problem. **The Nine Tails paused. **My previous thoughts still stand, this seal will kill us if we use my chakra too much, but that is not it's primary function. It's real purpose is to control you. **

_What! But how-_

**Let. Me. Finish. You know what happens to you when you use four tails of my chakra, right? **Naruto nodded, then remembered that the Nine Tails couldn't see him.

_Yeah. Neither of us is in control. I just go on instinct, and kill anything that comes within a hundred feet of me. _Naruto thought bitterly

**This seal has found a way to force you into that state without transforming you, so I cant contact or control you and you turn into a mindless brute. **

_But why did it happen then? Was it because I was angry at Sasuke?_

**That could be a factor, but I think someone else activated it, the person who made the seal. This person has found a way to give you commands or tiny prompts that will, to an extent, control your actions. **Naruto gritted his teeth, everything the Nine Tails said was right, he knew it.

_But why target Sasuke? _Naruto asked.

**I doubt someone would try to get you to kill Sasuke in the middle of a crowded room like that. It was probably a test, and from the Uchiha's reaction, probably not the first. **

_What? You mean this has happened before! _Then Naruto remembered the splitting headache he had after Kakashi took down Haku and how he went unconscious.

**You're going to have to contact Jiraiya or the third at the very least. We need someone with some experience with seals to look at this-**

_No!_

**And why not? Does keeping the fact you're a time traveler really take priority over your own life?**

_Not just mine! If I tell Jiraiya or the old man Kakashi will probably find out, he'll want to help! Eventually all of my friends will figure something's up too and they'll want to help! And if they help or get involved in any way, it'll end up just like last time!_

**You don't know th-**

_If they couldn't beat Madara when they were sixteen what makes you think they can when they're twelve! _Naruto thought angrily. The Nine Tails went silent, surprising Naruto.

**Maybe Itachi was right about you. **The Nine Tails said before breaking the connection. Naruto blinked rapidly, what had Itachi said about him?

_If you fixate your attentions on yourself, becoming arrogant and forgetting others..._

"No!" Naruto called out, his eyes widening in horror. "I'm not like that!" And he was jumping again, leaping through the tree line. He didn't know what he was running from, he just wanted to get away.

Then the chakra exhaustion hit him and he jumped wrong, slamming face first into a thick tree branch.

_If you fixate your attentions on yourself, becoming arrogant and forgetting others..._

_You'll become just like Madara._

* * *

Kakashi sighed as he looked down at his reflection in the clear lake of the Land of Waves. He looked over his shoulder at Tazuna's house, and then back to the dock he was currently sitting on. Just what had happened to Naruto?

That was the question that had been plaguing his thoughts for so long now. Naruto himself had told him he'd got the Nine Tails under control, to what had caused him to loose it?

Kakashi glared at the water and smashed his foot in it, sending ripples across the lake. This was just one of those days where everything goes wrong. Kakashi dragged his thumb through a small needle under a pocket on his jacket and flew threw a small set of seals before slamming his hand on the dock.

"Summon" He muttered more out of habit that anything else. There was a small puff of smoke and a little brown dog wearing a blue coat appeared.

"You called?" Pakkun asked in a particularly deep voice. Kakashi nodded,

"Find Naruto." He said plainly. Pakkun lowered his head to the ground and walked away. Kakashi turned back to the lake and started to wait for Pakkun's return when footsteps greeted his ears. But the stopped, as though the person walking was about to turn back, then started towards him again.

The person sat down next to him and Kakashi turned to him. Where he had been expecting Sakura or Sasuke or maybe even Tazuna, there sat Inari.

"I don't understand." Inari said. Kakashi blinked, even more confused than before. "Naruto, he almost k-killed his friend, because he let someone he barely knew walk away?" Kakashi sighed and turned away from Inari and turned back to the lake, it was illuminated by the moonlight and was a very beautiful sight.

"Naruto's just like that," Kakashi said after a long pause. "He knows what it's like to be ignored and disliked, so he doesn't want that to happen to anybody else, even a stranger." Inari looked at him with a confused expression,

"Him? Ignored and disliked?" Kakashi nodded.

"Up until a few weeks ago, Naruto didn't have a single friend in the village." Inari's mouth opened to ask another question when Pakkun suddenly appeared on Inari's head.

"Found him." Pakkun said plainly, jumping off of Inari after he yelled in surprise. Kakashi stood up, stretched and raised his hand,

"See you." He said before jumping away. Pakkun leapt in front of him and guided him through the tree line. Soon they came across a tree with a broken branch. Kakashi looked down and saw Naruto laying spread eagle on the ground and the rest of the broken branch just above his head.

"You idiot." Kakashi said to himself as he leapt down and threw Naruto over his shoulder. And in mere minutes they were back at the lake.

"Well, if that's all you want, I'll be going." Pakkun said before disappearing in a puff of smoke. Kakashi looked at Naruto, his face was contorted in discomfort and he gritted his teeth in his sleep. Kakashi looked over at the lake, which was now pitch black, the moon being covered by clouds.

It was then that Kakashi realized, that this wouldn't be the only day where everything went wrong.

* * *

It was cold.

Those were the only words he could think of to describe this room. It had only one door, no windows, and no light. Why he had chosen this small underground hideaway for a rendezvous point he would never know. The worst part was that his client was late.

He straightened the long black cloak that covered most of his body and adjusted the hood, pulling it over his face. That somewhat solved his first problem, but just changing the positions of a cloak would hardly solve his second problem. He took out a kunai and started to twirl it around his finger.

He waited, and waited, and before he knew it, a full hour had passed. He was about to give up completely when there was a series of small metal clicks from the door. The door opened to reveal Zabuza Momochi, demon of the mist. He smirked under his cloak.

"It is done." Zabuza said, "They don't plan on doing anything. They're just going finish the bridge and go home."

"Well that just won't do will it?" He asked, earning a glare from Zabuza.

"I've done everything you asked, I want my pay!"

"In time Zabuza, but you agreed to my terms, and the terms have not been met." He said. This was the fun part.

"Your terms were gather information about the team of ninja! I've done that! Now where is my pay?" His smile grew.

"Zabuza, there was no pay to begin with." Zabuza's eyes widened, but his expression quickly turned to a glare and he pulled out his sword, raised it and swung down. He caught it effortlessly and clamped his hand shut so Zabuza could not move it. Then, he took out a kunai and it lit the knife part on fire. The fire expanded to the shape of a sword.

"You will obey me," He started, before shoving the flaming kunai through Zabuza's chest. "Weather you want to or not." He ripped the flaming kunai out of Zabuza's chest and Zabuza collapsed on the ground. He slammed the flaming kunai into the ground so it illuminated he whole room.

Then he bent over Zabuza and started to slowly go through hand seals, chanting out the names of each one.

"Ox, ram, tiger..." On and on he went for ten minutes before finally finishing the sequence. His fingers started to glow a bright blue, and he slammed his hand on Zabuza's chest.

Zabuza's body shook violently, before going calm again. Than his eyes began to open. Slowly Zabuza rose into a sitting position. His eyes had changed, they were pitch black and the iris and pupil had changed to a bright yellow.

"Master." Zabuza said before kneeling in front of him. He smirked, pulling back the hood on his cloak revealing his messy purple hair.

Damn, he loved his job.

* * *

A/N: Wow, it's been a while since I've done one of these huh?Well I just wanted to say thanks to all my reviewers. Seriously, when I see that little review alert in my email it makes my day. So thank you all.

Also a few things I would like to say:

1. Fun fact: The quote for Itachi in this chapter was an actual quote from the manga. Chapter 552.

2. I pissed off a lot of people with the ryo line in chapter 6 didn't I? Well everyone thanks for your concerns but that line was put in there as a joke, for comedic elements only. And it's likely the only time I'll even mention ryo for the rest of this story. So thanks for you suggestions but it's probably going to stay the way it is.

Well, I think that's all for now. So please remember to review and I hoped you enjoyed this chapter!


	14. Unnecessary Complications

Hello world of Fanfiction! Im back after a month with a brand new chapter. I'm fairly sure this is the second longest chapter I've written, topped only by chapter nine. So I wasn't exactly proud of the last chapter, but I feel like this one is one of the best, so I hope you enjoy it. Now for my lack of updates, I've been writing in spurts really so I write when I can and as I look back I realize I got distracted every time I started writing, so this update really took longer than it should have.

Any way, I'm starting to look for a Beta reader. So if anyones interested or if you can just tell me how to find one on my own, Pm me, I would appreciate it a lot.

Well that's all I've got for now, so enjoy the chapter, and thanks for all of your reviews! The last one met my record of reviews per chapter _and _boosted me to over 50, which was my goal for the last chapter. So thanks a lot to everyone who reviewed, really, I mean it.

* * *

Chapter 13: Unnecessary Complications

Naruto's eyes shot open. He glanced around and realized he was back in his temporary room inside Tazuna's. He tried to sit up but then he was alerted to the spitting headache he had acquired. Naruto grunted in pain and put a hand on his forehead in a futile attempt to quell the pain. Naruto attempted to remember what had happened to give him the headache.

Haku had run away. There was part one, but what had happened next?

He almost killed Sasuke. Part two. That moment was going to haunt him for as long as he lived. Well he finally knew what being controlled felt like, and it wasn't a pleasant feeling.

Then he had run away, run like a _coward_. He tried to run from his problems and what had he got? He had managed to slam headfirst into an oversized tree branch. Almost as if reacting to the thought his headache suddenly sprung to life again.

Naruto pushed himself up off of his cot, walked unsteadily to his door and threw it open. He was assaulted by a blinding amount light and color, which did not assist his head in any way. Naruto shielded his eyes with his hands and waited for his eyes to adjust to the light. One thought went through his head,

_It was morning?_

Naruto sighed and stepped into the hall. The part that kept bugging him was not how he had run. It wasn't how he had nearly shoved his claws down Sasuke's throat. It was Sasuke's reaction to Haku leaving. If Sasuke already felt that people could just leave their friends whenever they wanted who was to say he wasn't already thinking about leaving?

Naruto stopped walking and lowered his gaze to the ground. If he didn't stop Sasuke from leaving, something like _that _could happen all over again.

* * *

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled out. But his voice was muffled by another explosion, this one right below his feet. Naruto jumped off the collapsing building and landed in the middle of an abandond street. Naruto looked around desperately, if he didn't find Sasuke soon there wouldn't be any leaf village left for him to save!

He pulled a large amount of the Nine Tail's chakra forward and bright yellow energy surrounded him. Naruto breathed in slowly, attempting to calm himself despite the destruction that was going on all around him. He shut his eyes and began to search the hidden leaf.

"Damnit Sasuke where are you." Naruto muttered under his breath as he looked through the clustered chakra signatures. Then he found Sasuke, but he didn't like what he saw.

Naruto burst forward in a flash of golden light and plowed straight through the several buildings in front of him. He stopped to regain his bearings before deciding that jumping over the next few would be a better way of getting to him. As Sasuke's chakra signature grew closer Naruto's eyes widened.

"Sasuke no!" Left with no other options, Naruto punched Sasuke in the side of the face as hard as he could and Sasuke was sent flying straight into a building which collapsed on top of him right after.. His sword clattered to the ground right in front of a terrified group of people. They didn't move one inch, they seemed frozen in fear from their near death experience.

"Go!" Naruto roared, letting out a small measure of his chakra. The civilians seemed to awaken from their temporary paralysis and they scattered.

"_Chidori!_" The yell was Naruto's only warning for the stream of lightning that came at him. Naruto jumped out of the way and onto a building that had definitely seen better days, seeing that it tipped dangerously when he landed.

Naruto turned to Sasuke who was standing on top of the rubble that used to be a three-story apartment with his Mangekyo Sharingan blazing.

"What the hell are you doing Sasuke!" Naruto yelled. Sasuke glared up at him,

"I'm destroying the Leaf for the crimes it committed to the Uchiha!"

"What crimes Sasuke!" Naruto yelled down to him. "Itachi was on our side!"

"And look where that got him!" Sasuke retorted. "This village forced him to murder his own clan, his own family!" Sasuke left no room for a response when he picked up his sword and shot forward and up the building, shattering any windows that were fortunate enough to last this long.

Naruto caught his fist and pulled Sasuke forward in an attempt to deliver a punch of his own, but he forgot about Sasuke's sharingan. Sasuke let himself be dragged forward before jumping up and drop kicking Naruto in the chest. The chakra infused blow sent Naruto flying through the building he had been previously standing on.

Naruto flew to the building right behind it, but landed gently on the side of it and, anticipating Sasuke's follow up, proceeded to flip up onto his hands. Sasuke flew threw the hole Naruto had made with a chidori in his hand and crashed right into the spot Naruto had just been standing.

Without giving Sasuke time to recover Naruto spun around on his hands and smashed his foot into Sasuke's side with all of his might. Blood shot out of Sasuke's mouth, much to Naruto's satisfaction, and he was sent spiraling down to the street.

Naruto had realized that the key to beating the sharingan was not to outsmart your opponent, but simply to be faster and stronger then them. With his new form, Naruto had those two advantages.

Naruto shot down from the building and right up to Sasuke and delivered two quick punches to his chest followed by a kick that Sasuke recovered just fast enough to block, but the attack still send him skidding backwards. Naruto made his favorite cross hand seal and a clone appeared behind Sasuke and sent a kick to the back of his head, which he ducked.

Sasuke realized his mistake too late when he ducked straight into the uppercut of another clone that had just appeared in front of him. Sasuke's head was thrown back and the original Naruto shot forward and smashed another full force punch into Sasuke's chest.

More blood trickled out of Sasuke's mouth as he staggered backwards. Sasuke glared defiantly at him and Naruto glared right back. Then Sasuke's sharingan started spinning wildly and Naruto didn't turn away fast enough.

Naruto felt the change before he saw it, the sudden drop in his senses and level of power. He glanced down at his hands and saw his familiar orange jacket along with his tan hands. He glared up at Sasuke but it soon became evident he wasn't finished. Sasuke's sharingan began spinning again and he glared right at Naruto,

"Amataratsu." Sasuke whispered. Naruto yelled in fear and dove to the side and the village behind him exploded with black flames. Screams echoed around Naruto, but none of them from surprise, all of them from pain, a slow agonizing pain that would ultimately lead to their death.

The screams of the village continued for what seemed like hours, but could have been a few minutes. The whole time Naruto was internally yelling at himself to attack Sasuke, he knew that if he took Sasuke down the screams would stop but he couldn't. He just stayed glued to the ground in a half-crouch with the screams of the people of the leaf, his friends, assaulting his ears.

Then, slowly the sound became quieter. Soon becoming nothing more of a whisper to him until finally, it stopped.

The Village Hidden in the Leaves was silent.

There would be no more laughing coming from the streets. There would be no more legends of the village's power, only tales of a village that had once been strong but was now a pile of ash.

There would be no more defiance, no more pursuit of freedom that only the leaf had offered. All that was left was the crackling of the black flames behind and all around him.

There would be no more friendliness; only the heartless cruel world where there was no trust, no friendship, nothing but a selfish world, one that some people would say was not fit to live in.

It was that silence, not the screams or a huge explosion that awakened him from his stupor. Naruto stood up slowly; a level of anger that he never would have thought possible coursing threw his body.

"BASTARD!" It was a long yell fueled with rage, he could hear the cracking of the ground, feel the buildings collapse around him, but he didn't care. He shot forward attempting to slam his fist into Sasuke's chest, but Sasuke dodged it easily and grabbed Naruto's neck.

Sasuke picked him up and leisurely threw him over his shoulder, sending Naruto up in the air and landing outside the borders of the crumbling village. Sasuke landed in front of him.

Naruto picked himself up and launched himself forward again, but was blown back by a wind picking up around Sasuke. Suddenly a massive purple skeleton surrounded Sasuke. The giant... thing had what looked like a spear of energy in it's right hand and a bow in its left. The skeleton placed the spear in the bow and aimed it right at Naruto,

"Goodbye Naruto." Sasuke said quietly, and he shot the arrow. Naruto closed his eyes, knowing he had failed. Maybe this would be a slow death, which would at least start his repentance.

Suddenly he felt a hand being placed on his shoulder. Naruto's eyes shot open and he looked towards the touch to find none other than Madara Uchiha. Even after the arrow shot threw him he just simply stared at Madara. Naruto blinked, he blinked again, he rubbed his eyes franticly, he slapped himself. No matter what he tried Madara still stood there.

Suddenly the hand lifted itself and Madara elbowed Naruto in the chest. Pain shot threw Naruto and he felt the sudden urge to throw up as he lurched forward. Madara stepped forward without sending Naruto a second glance.

"Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke," He chided. "I thought you knew that there are some nucences in this world that you just have to deal with yourself." Madara said in his true, much deeper voice. Sasuke's Susanoo disappeared as he nodded.

"Having said that," Madara continued. "I think you have done enough Sasuke. It's time to finish what I started." He said, turning to Sasuke with his sharingan spinning. Sasuke's eyes widened and he dived out of the way just as the ground he was standing on burst into black flames. Sasuke flipped over Madara and landed a in front of Naruto.

"What do you mean, 'finish what you started'?" Sasuke asked, drawing his sword. There was a slight pause before Madara broke into a fit of laughter.

"Please, do you honestly believe that those idiot Uchiha that were groveling at the feet of the leaf were smart enough to start a rebellion?" He asked while chuckling. His laughing abruptly stopped and he glared at Sasuke. "The Uchiha were once a proud clan. Full of powerful ninja that could rival any hokage! But then we joined the leaf, and were paired with the likes of the _Hyuga_. " Madara growled out the last part with utmost loathing.

"We became a weak pathetic clan, and we made no move to reclaim our former glory. So I was forced to take things into my own hands." Naruto jumped up after hearing this,

"You started the rebellion!" Naruto shouted, drawing another fit of laughter from Madara.

"Started it?" He repeated "I _led _it you fool!"

"But you killed everyone in it! You worked with Itachi to kill it off!" Naruto said, his confusion getting in the way of his anger of what Madara was saying.

"I did the same thing I'm doing now. I realized that the Uchiha had become so weak they couldn't last a day against the leaf, they had become so weak they didn't deserve a place in this world." Naruto's eyes widened at his words.

Before he could retort, before Sasuke could digest what Madara had said, a glowing fist smashed into the side of Madara's head. Madara flew back to the burning village, revealing Sakura with her fist still extended at her side. When she saw Naruto and Sasuke openly staring at her a wide grin spread across her face.

"Your alive?" She asked tentatively, if possible her grin grew wider. "I thought for sure you had killed each other by now. The rest of us are on the way, I was just a little closer." Suddenly there was a strangled yell from the village that signaled Madara's recovery.

"Sasuke, Sakura's the heaviest hitter out of all of us," Naruto said to the Uchiha standing in front of him. "So its our job to create openings for her, ok?" Naruto said the last word in a forced tone, praying that Sasuke would agree. Suddenly Madara appeared and shot towards Sakura.

"I get the final blow." Was all he said before charging Madara. Madara flashed through a few hand seals and put two fingers up to his mask and three massive fireballs flew from his fingers.

Naruto drew on the Nine Tail's chakra and changed into his glowing form. He flashed in front of the fireballs and held out his hand.

"_Vortex rasengan!" _ A massive black rasengan took shape in his hand and drew the fireballs toward it and quickly absorbed them. "Sasuke, Sakura now!" Naruto yelled. They both sped forward but Sasuke got to Madara first. Sasuke sped behind Madara and slashed at him with his sword just as Sakura reached him and aimed another glowing fist at Madara.

Sasuke hit air. Madara turned intangible at the last minute and Sasuke missed completely. Sakura had succeeded in throwing her fist through Madara and breaking Sasuke's sword. Madara reached back and slammed his fist into Sasuke's face, sending him reeling back.

Sakura's eyes widened as Madara grabbed one of the pieces of Sasuke's sword out of mid air and rammed it straight through her chest.

To Naruto, it seemed that time stood still. It could not happen, Sakura couldn't have just gotten stabbed, Sakura wasn't dying. His mind was spinning and his body froze, the rasengan in his hand disappeared, leaving the clearing in absolute silence.

Suddenly Sakura's head shot up and she glared right into Madara's eyes, took his arm and shoved it deeper into her chest. Madara was pulled towards her and Sakura cocked her fist back, charged it with everything she had and slammed it straight into Madara's face.

The wind seemed to picked up around them as Madara's mask broke in half and he was lifted off his feet and send flying through several buildings before coming to a stop at the middle of the village with an almighty crash that sent dust streaming up into the sky. A smirk found its way onto Sakura's face as she toppled backwards.

"Gotcha, you bastard." She said so quietly it was almost a whisper. Without another word, she closed her eyes, the grin still present, and was still.

Naruto watched as her chest slowly stopped moving, he watched as the blood trickled out of her mouth and onto the ground. He watched as the pool of blood under her got larger. Finally he found his voice,

"SAKURA!"

* * *

Naruto stared at the half full cup of swirling water, lazily spinning it in his hand. His headache was already receding due to the Nine Tails and the pills he had just took. He quickly downed the rest of the cool water and placed the now empty glass on the counter he was leaning on.

Naruto lightly slapped his cheeks and shook his head. This wasn't the time to get depressed. If he did anymore brooding he would end up like Sasuke! Besides he still had to the end of the week to prepare for Zabu-

OH CRAP! Was the only thing he could think of. This _was _the end of the week! A soft soothing voice suddenly cut through his panic,

"We don't hold it against you, you know." Naruto blinked and turned towards the voice and found Tsunami looking at him with a concerned expression, two glasses in her hands. After seeing the confused expression on Naruto's face she continued, "What you did last night, we don't think any worse of you for it. Tea?" She said holding out one of the glasses, which Naruto took slowly. Then something clicked in Naruto's mind. She thought that he was concerned about what happened last night.

Naruto smiled gratefully and tried to enjoy this small calm moment, but the date was constantly cropping up in his head.

"Hey Tsunami, where's my team? We should probably get to working on the bridge." He said. Knowing Kakashi, they were all still asleep unaware they were going to a battle to the death with a Jonin level ninja.

"Oh your team." She said. Then she paused slightly, as if to decide what to tell him. "Well your team left hours ago really. They said to let you sleep in since you had a... rough night." The tea promptly fell out of Naruto's hands and shattered on the floor.

Seriously, his team chooses _now_ of all times to be considerate of his health! What a way to make his life more unnecessarily complicated than it already was. Naruto let out a low growl and was about to storm out of the house when he heard the sound of breaking glass and a muffled scream.

Naruto froze and stayed perfectly still. Then he heard footsteps and a man walked into the kitchen with a sword pressed up against Inari's neck.

"Now you are all gonna do as I say, or you can consider the little brat here fish food." Naruto glared daggers at the man but at the same time was internally reprimanding himself. He should have remembered these guys, but no, he had to forget about them and gave himself a hostage situation on top of all of his other troubles. At that moment one thought shot through his head.

_Why me_?


End file.
